Families win a day at this year's IPM

Friday, August 2, 2013

by SUSAN MANN

Ten farm families will enjoy a day at the International Plowing Match and Rural Expo in Mitchell, West Perth this year after they were named winners of the BMO Ontario Farm Family Awards.

The families will get to have 10 members each at the plowing match on its final day. Each family will be presented with a gate sign at the match’s main stage. Also on the agenda are lunch, a family photography session and, of course, an opportunity to enjoy events at the match, which runs from Sept. 17-21. For special features at the match, there will be VIP seating for the families.

“We try to give them a first class day at the IPM,” says Cathy Lasby, executive director of the Ontario Plowmen’s Association.

The Ontario Plowmen’s Association and BMO Bank of Montreal sponsor the award.

It began last year and is handed out annually. The families are receiving the award for their dedication to Ontario’s agricultural sector and the rural way of life.

The winners are:

• The McIntosh family, Bruce County.
• The Barkey family, Durham Region.
• The Bennett family, Frontenac County.
• The Weber family, Grey County.
• The McNeil family, Huron County.
• The Burnham family, Northumberland County.
• The Brander family, Peel-Dufferin counties.
• The McBride family, Renfrew County.
• The Ringelberg family, Hamilton-Wentworth (north).
• The Cranston family, Hamilton-Wentworth (south).

The winners were chosen by a panel of four judges from nominations forwarded to the Plowmen’s Association office. Each of the 49 branches of the Plowmen’s Association can nominate someone, Lasby says. Nominees don’t have to be affiliated with the Plowmen’s Association or with plowing. “It’s all about agriculture,” she notes.

This is the 100th year since the match was first held in 1913 on lands now occupied by Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto. But because it was suspended during wartimes and the Spanish flu, the match won’t celebrate its actual centennial until 2017, Lasby says. BF