Big fun on big rigs

Children play on trucks from Sterling and surrounding areas on Saturday's "Touch-A-Truck" event at Bethel Church in Sterling. (Chris Padgett/cpadgett@svnmail.com)

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STERLING – Sawyer Zuithoff loved the fit and feel of the spotless Peterbilt semitractor parked outside his grandfather’s church.

He tugged on the bellowing air horn. Bounced in the seat. Climbed in and out of the cab that stood three times as high as he.

Along with about 130 other children, Sawyer, a 3-year-old from Glendale Heights in suburban Chicago, spent Saturday morning observing heavy equipment with all five senses at the Sterling Park District’s “Touch a Truck Day.”

Area truckers, earth movers, contractors and plain-old owners of cool-looking cars  assembled their fleet at Bethel Reformed Church, across the street from the Park District’s Duis Center.

There, kids could get a full appreciation of the size, rather than blowing past the heavy trucks on interstate highways and job sites.

Charlie Lawrence, the Sterling owner of Charlie Lawrence Trucking, brought the hulking Peterbilt 379 that so enamored little Sawyer.

The 2-year-old, $129,000 semitractor is the same model – and color – that played television hero Optimus Prime in the 2007 incarnation of the Transformers franchise.

“It’s great to see the kids getting up close to the equipment,” Lawrence said. “This is everyday for me – these big things. You take for granted the size of them.”

Sawyer’s father, Mark Zuithoff, had to coax the boy down when it was time for Lawrence to leave.

“He’d stay in there all day if you let him,” Zuithoff said.