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JACKSON – Thirty years have passed since Northampton and Halifax County high school students and teachers shocked the world when they built a full-size electric race car and won regional and national competitions.

To commemorate that achievement and honor the hard work of the students, teachers, administrators, and community members for the many years of the electric vehicle program, a reunion is being held on September 28.

That event will be held at Central Elementary School, located at 9742 NC 305 north of Jackson. A social gathering is planned for 3-5 p.m. followed by a program and dinner.

Former students, teachers, administrators, and community members that participated in the Northampton/Halifax electric vehicle educational programs from 1993 – 2010 are invited to attend. They are asked to bring any memorabilia for display. Family and friends are also invited.

A donation of up to $25 per person, payable in cash or Venmo only at the event, is required to help cover the cost of the meal. To RSVP, visit https://shorturl.at/fKZYi).

In 1993, John Parker, then assistant superintendent of Northampton County Public Schools, came to Harold Miller, the auto mechanics instructor at Northampton County High School-East, to learn more about an electric vehicle he had always heard him talk about. At roughly the same time, Virginia Power (now known as Dominion Energy) was gearing up for an electric vehicle competition to be held on a NASCAR track in Richmond, VA.

Through the vision of Parker and Miller, NEAT (North East Automotive Team) was born.

Miller began working alongside Eric Ryan – a physics teacher at NCHS-East – and they recruited students from NCHS-East, NCHS-West, Weldon High School and Northwest Halifax High School. They transformed an old Ford Escort (aptly named “The Shocker”) for the EV Grand Prix competition slated for spring of 1994. Local race car driver Keith Edwards helped to teach the team how to be competitive with the car.

Being from a rural area, NEAT had limited financial resources at their disposal, but what they did have in their back pocket were creativity and a hunger to succeed. They represented different backgrounds….racial, cultural and academic. They weren’t handpicked to be the cream of the crop and that, as it turned out, was advantageous. They learned design and then applied that to acceleration, handling, and braking. It all fell under the purpose of why they were in school….to receive an education.

And then came the big day at the Richmond International Motor Speedway….site of the 1994 EV Challenge. There were multiple EV teams taking part in the event, most representing larger high schools who benefitted from bigger financial investments. In what could best be described as a David vs. Goliath storyline, NEAT rolled into Richmond and left with the overall championship. In the different categories of the Grand Prix, NEAT claimed first place in the range event and the race, and placed third in their educational presentation. The little school from a farming community had literally “shocked” the EV world.

NEAT also won championships at the international level during events held in Phoenix, Arizona. That event attracted EV teams from the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The success of NEAT led to stories in national publications, to include Parade Magazine and the Wall Street Journal. A parade was held in the team’s honor in downtown Raleigh.

The NEAT program was also the subject of a 2004 book – Electric Dreams, written by Caroline Kettlewell, which tells the story of a team of high school students from a poor school district in North Carolina competing with other more affluent schools to build and race an electric car. NEAT went on to host several annual EV competitions of their own, first at Tri-County Airport and later at the North Carolina Center for Automotive Research, a premier testing track near Garysburg.