Kansas High School Displays Its Pride with 2018 F-150 XL STX
In a partnership with Augusta High School, Don Hattan Ford will donate $100 at every home boys basketball game this season.
Over 20 years ago, I graduated from Augusta High School in Augusta, Kansas, a small town of around 9,000 located a half-hour east of Wichita. Back then, the new car-like F-150 had just split off from the rest of the F-Series, and one of the area dealerships, Don Hattan, sold only Chevys.
Today, the F-150 has since returned to the fold, and looks like a truck more than ever. Don Hattan now sells Fords, and has partnered with my high school to promote school pride with an orange and black 2018 F-150.
“We were just brainstorming on ways we could be involved in the [USD 402] school district,” said Erika Maley, Director of Marketing at Don Hattan. “Down in Derby, we do several different things, so we could use that as the baseline of what we know works.”
Between the dealership, the high school, and the school district, the plan was to wrap an F-150 in the school’s colors, “use it at different community events and everything,” and during halftime at every home boys basketball game, hold a donation presentation to the Augusta High School plus a half-court shot contest that would net the school $1,000 if the chosen contestant made the shot.
“Fords are king over here [in Kansas],” said Maley, “especially out in Augusta. There’s a lot of farmers and ranchers out in that area. We’re the newest Ford dealer in town, so we wanted to go in with a bang. We didn’t think there’d be another way to do that besides using one of the new F-150s.“
The F-150 chosen for the job of promoting “#OriolePride” is an XL SuperCrew 4×4 with the STX appearance package, which rolls on 20-inch machined aluminum wheels, has unique STX badges, and comes with the SYNC 3 infotainment system. The wrap was created by Xpress Signs & Graphics out of Wichita, which has also wrapped a few of Don Hattan’s promo and service vehicles, per Maley.
“There’s been talks about [giving away a truck], but nothing confirmed just quite yet,” said Maley in reference to my high school asking on its Facebook page if anyone wanted a truck for Christmas. Per her email, the idea would be to give away a vehicle via raffle during football season, with all the proceeds going back to Augusta High School.
Until then, should you happen to be in my old hometown on any given night for a basketball game at my high school, you just might see an orange and black F-150 parked out front, beaming with pride for the Orioles, and for the newest Ford dealer on the block.
