After 21 weeks of reviewing entries from Bobcat® compact equipment enthusiasts, Bobcat Company officials have selected a grand prize winner, five second-place winners and 10 third-place winners in the How Bobcat Unleashed Me Contest.
The How Bobcat Unleashed Me Contest asked compact equipment users to share how Bobcat equipment helped them to work better, smarter and faster. Equipment users across the continental United States and Canada submitted brief essays and photographs about their experiences with Bobcat equipment.
The grand prize winner is Gregory Stone of Excavation Details, Rock Stream, N.Y.
Stone will receive a $75,000 Bobcat gift certificate, good for products or attachments of his choice at a designated Bobcat dealership in North America. He was selected from among many superb entries because of his inspiring story. Formerly a skilled professional with a custom cabinet and millwork company, Stone wanted to make more of his life and had a passion to operate compact equipment for a full-time job. He recognized a niche application in vineyards and developed a process to dig precise draining systems while preventing damage to the vines and valuable soil.
Stone purchased a Bobcat skid-steer loader and backhoe attachment — after some guidance from a Bobcat sales specialist — to install the complex drainage systems in the Finger Lakes region of New York. The compact loader and backhoe attachment proved to be perfect for his niche application.
Today, Stone is a successful contractor with a business that’s expanded into other areas, including landscape contracting. He continues to explore new opportunities through equipment and attachment rentals at Bobcat of the Twin Tiers, located in Elmira, N.Y.
“How many opportunities does a person get in a lifetime to start a truly needed service and have it turn out well?" writes Stone in his winning entry. "I have gone from despair to a job that is so much fun, and I’m amazed when people give me money for it. Have I been unleashed? You betcha! Thank you, Bobcat.”
Second-place winners
In addition, five second-place prize winners will receive $1,000 gift certificates, good for Bobcat products or attachments of the winners’ choice at designated Bobcat dealerships in North America. The five second-place winners include the following individuals:
1. Michael Lowes; Lowes’ Landscaping; Cuba, Mo.
2. Eric Austin; Austin’s Landscape Construction Inc.; Yorba Linda, Calif.
3. Terry Reed; Four Seasons Construction; Whitehall, Mont.
4. Bob Pedatella; Kodiak Landscape Design, Haskell, N.J.
5. Ray Benoit Jr.; Eagle 88 Enterprises; Hay River, Northwest Territories, Canada
Third-place winners
Ten third-place prize winners will receive an authentic Bobcat jacket. The ten third-place winners are:
• Robert Ott; C&C Excavating LLC; La Crescent, Minn.
• Joe Emigh; Utica, Pa.
• Otto Trebing; Tanglewood-Destiny; Roopville, Ga.
• Dennis Goecke II; Tipp City, Ohio
• Josh Ginther; Ginther Farms; Abingdon, Ill.
• Jethro Montgomery; Turf Concepts LLC; Elida, Ohio
• Marvyn Pickering; Porcupine Plain; Saskatchewan, Canada
• Devin Scheel; Firm CRS; Draper, Utah
• Marion Perret; Trans-Speed International; Jefferson, La.
• Richard Meffert; Raeford, N.C.
During 2008, the company is celebrating the 50th anniversary of Bobcat compact equipment, which began with the Melroe Self-Propelled Loader — a three-wheeled front-end loader — in 1958. That machine evolved into the Bobcat skid-steer loader and spawned the worldwide compact equipment industry.