The Clayton family is also raising money for charity
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
A farming family has turned their combine into a mobile art display to thank people on the front lines during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sophie and Thomas Clayton, who raise crops on Toggam Farm in Lakenheath, UK and provide custom farming services, are attaching pictures of rainbows drawn by children to their Claas Lexion 750TT combine to acknowledge the doctors and nurses of the National Health Service (NHS) and farmers.
The family started collecting drawings in May. Since then, rainbow artwork has come in from across the UK and Ireland. The combine is currently wrapped with about 200 rainbows.
Decorating the combine is a small gesture to thank doctors, nurses and farmers, who have continued to work despite the pandemic.
“We wanted to raise awareness of the work of the NHS and farmers – two of the industries (that) have kept going and helped us through the crisis,” Thomas said, Bury Free Press reported. “Hopefully it will help remind people.”
In addition, the Claytons are using the rainbow-clad combine to raise money for the NHS.
For every acre the combine harvests, the farm family will donate £1 (C$1.75 or US$1.30) to NHS Charities Together. The goal is to raise £10,000 (C$17,468 or US$13,038).
Farmers from different parts of the world have also taken the time to thank those caring for others during the pandemic.
In April, producers from Elgin County, Ont. in Canada gave workers at the St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital a six-minute tractor parade.
And in May, a flower grower from Cumberland, R.I. in the United States, donated 50,000 tulips to health care workers and nursing homes.
Tony Smith/Facebook photo