News Release Distributed 11/04/10

A work of love to honor a Jackson Parish 4-H’er killed in an automobile accident was auctioned at the State Fair of Louisiana Junior Livestock Sale in Shreveport on Oct. 27.

4-H’er Tyler Wayne Ledford, 17, of Eros, was killed on July 31 in Marion. He was a senior at Quitman High School.

Ledford’s friends in 4-H and FFA decided to give the proceeds from the sale of a cooker they built in a competition at the fair to help defray his burial costs. The cooker brought $7,000 at the auction and was the grand champion in the ag mechanics metal category at the show.

The FFA members included Kaleb Seymour, Nicholas Garcie, Blaine Cooper, Nathan Futrell and Tim White. Garcie, team leader, and Cooper are also in 4-H.

“It was their idea to help,” said Carol Garcie, Nicholas’ mother. Dan Stout, their ag teacher and FFA adviser, got the approval of the Jackson Parish School Board to carry out the donation.

Andy Loftus of Keatchie, Shreveport Tractor in Shreveport, Leflett Cattle Co. in north Shreveport and Jim Towns of Sibley contributed $7,000 at the auction. Encana Gas tagged on another $500.

Ledford was a welding team member who attended the auction last year.

“Five of us worked two weeks late after school to finish this,” Nicholas Garcie said.

“Tyler was a fun-loving young man that could always put a smile on your face,” said Kim Cockerham, LSU AgCenter agent in Jackson Parish. “His peers respected him and loved him. Tyler will be greatly missed in Jackson Parish and at his school.”