SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) – Many people in KELOLAND are used to sitting behind the wheel of a tractor, but imagine doing it for over two thousand miles. That’s what one man is doing as he makes a cross country trip to raise awareness for a debilitating disease.
Mike Adkinson with the Tractor Trip for Parkinson’s pulled through Sioux Falls Sunday and we caught up with him to learn more about his journey.
Living in the Midwest, chances are you’ve gotten stuck behind a tractor a time or two on the highway. Well, this John Deere isn’t headed to a field — it’s headed to Washington on a mission to raise awareness for Parkinson’s Disease.
“Number one, create awareness to the disease and the impact that it’s having on our communities and our families and our friends. And also, two, acquire donations for the American Parkinson’s Disease Association, the APDA,” Adkinson said.
This trip is personal for Adkinson because his brother was diagnosed with Parkinson’s about five years ago.
“There’s not much you can do as family members other than the primary care and I want to do something. And one of the things I think Parkinson’s people fight is depression. It’s hard to get motivated,” Adkinson said. “He and a lot of friends are watching so I think it gives him some excitement during the day,”
And you can follow along with the journey too on the Tractor Trip for Parkinson’s Facebook, YouTube and Tik Tok pages. Adkinson has a goal of raising $100,000.
“I’m hoping we make it, but you know, it will totally be successful in the fact that, you know, I probably wave two to four hundred times a day to people on highways. And a lot of those people wave back with a lot of vigor and so I think they’ve seen it. So they see the tractor, they kind of know what’s going on and that’s good,” Adkinson said.
Chugging along a some 2,700 mile route for an important cause.
Adkinson did a similar journey last year, but for only 18 hundred miles. He raised 50 thousand dollars.