Arlington teacher wins truck, trailer from Coastal Farm & Ranch giveaway

ARLINGTON — Leah Robinson had just brought her fourth-grade students back indoors from recess at Kent Prairie Elementary when she was called out to the school's parking lot on the afternoon of Tuesday, Sept. 24.

ARLINGTON — Leah Robinson had just brought her fourth-grade students back indoors from recess at Kent Prairie Elementary when she was called out to the school’s parking lot on the afternoon of Tuesday, Sept. 24.

What she found required her to call her husband, to come drive the extra vehicle she’d gained back to their home, because she’d just won a 2013 diesel-fueled Ford F-250 Super Duty pickup truck — complete with a cattle-guard on the front grill, a toolbox behind the cab and a two-horse steel trailer hitched to the back — from the Oregon-based Coastal Farm & Ranch chain, as part of its 50th anniversary giveaway.

“Wow, I’m shocked,” said Robinson, who was nonetheless all smiles as she tested out the driver’s seat of the truck. “I just thought I might be getting a free little gift. This is pretty amazing.”

Joe Clemens, marketing manager for Coastal Farm & Ranch, explained that Robinson beat the odds by winning the grand prize, since an estimated 2.2 million residents of the chain’s 12 markets in Washington and Oregon had entered the drawing since it started in April, either at one of Coastal’s stores or online.

“There were 12 other winners, one for each of our markets, but they just got the trailer,” Clemens said. “It’s nice that our grand prize winner was from one of our newer markets, and that she’s a school teacher, because Coastal is really big on helping kids, through 4-H and the Future Farmers of America.”

Robinson has four horses on her farm, so both the trailer and the truck will come in handy for her.

“You can always use a truck on a farm,” said Robinson, who shops at Coastal’s Mount Vernon store. “It’s so nice, but so weird. Things like this never happen to me. I don’t think it’s registered yet.”