How often is it that a reporter gets the chance to do a story on a town bearing the same name as his? Well, that’s just what happened to NBC’s Ron Mott, who received an invitation to cover the second annual Tractor Fest in Mott, North Dakota.
Mott tells TVNewser, “I had to pitch it (to New York).” He got the green light to go to North Dakota.
“It’s hard to describe the feeling — seeing your name on a big board that says ‘Welcome to Mott’,” Mott says. He was surprised, then, to look up his name in the local phone book and notice that, with more than 800 residents, not one is a Mott. “I was the first Mott to show up in the town in a long time,” he says. “It was just a hoot!”
The people of Mott “went out of their way” welcoming him to town, even giving him a star on their Walk of Fame. “It was really touching.”
Mott is filing two stories, both scheduled to air this weekend: one on his experience in Mott (for Today), the other on the importance of the tractor in rural America (for Nightly News). “It was a confirmation that there are still a lot of good stories to be told,” says Mott. “It’s so refreshing.”