The future Farmers of America youth from Eastern View High School showed courage and earned glory as America’s only chapter to be featured in two recent national Dodge RAM commercials with country artist Jackson Dean .
A television ad effectively highlights Culpeper County’s rich farming heritage to a younger generation, with EVHS FFA Chapter Treasurer Morgan Butler working on the family farm.
“My name is Morgan,” she says in a long 2:43 commercial at https://youtu.be/-m1dmwyn4r0. “People think growing up and working on a farm is hard, but it is. I love farm life. ‘s FFA friends are my life,” says Butler, wearing an FFA t-shirt.
“I learned the value of a hard day’s work. I learned to never give up. And I learned the true importance of American agriculture. It’s up to my generation to change the way the world grows.” Being part of agriculture has shaped my life and helped guide my future.”
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A RAM ad shows local high school students waking up in the dark at 5 a.m. to look after their horses. Butler’s Virginia FFA Eastern Her View Her jacket hangs on the back of a chair in her room, and Dean has her concert tickets on her desk.
The Maryland-born country singer signed to Big Machine Records last year and is currently on tour. He stopped by Doswell on his October 8th to coincide with the release of Country 2021’s “RAM Agriculture” commercial at Culpeper featuring his ballad “Wings.”
According to Schools Department spokeswoman Laura Huber, the production crew spent two days filming the commercial. Filming took place one day at her local FFA member’s farm.
Another day was spent at Eastern View. Dean visited agriculture teacher Melesha in her Souder classroom and school greenhouse with her students.
The Country Star drives the RAM past Culpeper’s pristine farm to a local high school on Highway 29. At his one of Culpeper’s various indoor growing businesses, a greenhouse worker’s hand is planted.
“The farmer is sick and unemployed and unable to redo most of the important things in life,” Dean says in the commercial.
“The sun rises early every day and nothing can stop the sunset from disappearing. Nothing shows faith like a farmer sowing his fields. So be a believer, be brave and see what happens. Please watch over me.”
In the commercial, Butler boards a yellow school bus after finishing his farm work. It features the front of the EVHS as the bus arrives and footage of the country star’s visit with students, including Dean holding a bunny in the classroom.
The commercial ended with his concert later that night, with EVHS FFA students providing VIP and backstage access, what must have been an exciting experience.
The concert is over and Butler is seen tending to the horse and several cows on the new day. “This farm is a part of me and always will be,” she says.
After seeing the commercial, RAM executives were so pleased they asked the production company to make a 30-second version with the same storyline and footage. It was first unveiled at an awards show.
EVHS has launched its greenhouse program in the spring of 2021. Together with sister schools at Culpeper County High School, AG students host an annual plant sale to raise funds to support the FFA program.
All the plants are grown by students, Suder said in an interview with Star-Exponent last year.
“These are not wholesale factory shipped,” she said. “These children, as they are called, grew them from seeds, some from small plugs.”
EVHS installed a state-of-the-art greenhouse that prepared students for the many greenhouse employment opportunities in the Culpeper area, Suder said at the time. The greenhouse was built by him in the summer of 2020 during the COVID-19 quarantine. Poinsettias were the students’ first crop.
