from Brownsville Sugar Creek Senior Living Community hosted Ford’s Blue Oval City project in the area in a way that caught the attention of the company’s CEO.
For the past decade, Sugar Creek has created a themed calendar each year that it distributes to residents and businesses in the Brownsville community. This year’s calendar was “Welcome Ford,” which featured Sugar Creek residents in various classic Ford cars.
“It made me smile today,” Ford CEO Jim Farley tweeted on March 10. To like! Glad that @Ford’s #BlueOvalCity is part of the West Tennessee community.
Sugar Creek administrator Diane Hooper said it didn’t feel “real” to her when she heard of Farley’s tweet, even though Sugar Creek had been in communication with Ford and knew Farley planned to tweet about the calendar last week.
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“I texted my boss (this) morning and sent him the picture of the tweet the CEO had made,” Hooper said. “I laughed and told them I said, ‘We’re going to be famous. He said, ‘That’s right.’ (The) name of Sugar Creek is over there. We are delighted that Ford recognizes us in this way. They thought of us enough that they liked the calendar and wanted to pay homage to Sugar Creek. »
Ford officials, along with South Korea’s SK innovation, announced plans in September for a $5.6 billion project to produce electric trucks and electric vehicle batteries at a 4,100-acre site. at Stanton. The project is expected to create approximately 5,800 jobs.
Work at the Blue Oval City site is scheduled to begin this month with on-site production expected to begin in 2025. Brownsville is about 13 miles from the future Ford plant.
Brooke Evans is Hooper’s daughter and photographer for Sugar Creek Calendar. She suggested Ford as a possible theme after Blue Oval City was announced – especially since they all drive Fords and are a “Ford family”.
The challenge was to find enough classic Ford cars to fill the Sugar Creek schedule.
“Things just started to fall into place,” Evans said. “People knew people who had vintage cars. They were willing to take them wherever we needed them. Most of the ones we used were obviously drivable. It wasn’t like they were in a hall showrooms and didn’t let anyone touch them. The owners of the cars were delighted to be in the photos.
Residents of Sugar Creek dressed up and went to various nearby locations for the calendar photo shoot. They posed with Ford trucks of different colors. In another photo, three people were wearing Ford shirts with the word “welcome” in the traditional Ford logo.
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For residents, the calendar represents a time of excitement and catching up. This is something the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on over the past two years.
“To them it’s huge, what seems so simple is so much fun for them and so different from the ordinary,” Evans said. “They talk about the calendar all year round. They tell new residents that they can’t wait until they’re ready to make the schedule, you have to be part of the schedule.
The calendar also symbolizes Sugar Creek’s enthusiasm for Blue Oval City, Hooper said.
“It’s a big deal for our county that this big plant is coming in and hopefully going to provide jobs and opportunity,” Hooper said. “We know this is going to change our city and there are concerns about that, but with any growth there has to be change.”
Omer Yusuf covers the Ford Project in Haywood County, residential real estate, tourism and banking for The Commercial Appeal. He can be contacted by email. [email protected] or follow on Twitter @OmerAYusuf.
