Grant Adds Ag Education to Exhibition

Visitors to the Hants County Exhibition this fall will have a chance to dig deeper into agriculture with a new feature focused on hands-on demonstrations of what happens on some of the area’s farms.

“We want people to not only have a great time at the midway or listening to music, but we also want them to really understand the importance of agriculture in our region and what it takes to put food on the table," says Sheri Donovan, general manager of the Hants County Exhibition and Fairgrounds.

Bringing an educational component to the annual exhibition has been at the top of Donovan’s wish list since becoming general manager two years ago.

“Our initial plan was to raise money to build a permanent structure to hold the demonstrations, but unfortunately we didn’t get there for this year,” she says. “We had a backup plan though to make sure my vision to provide educational opportunities for the public could still come to fruition.”

That backup plan is to stage demonstrations in the festival tent, using the funds raised this year to pay for the equipment and people needed to run them.

“Now that we know what we have to work with, we are putting together our plans for the demonstrations. We haven’t solidified anything just yet, but we see it as an opportunity for us to showcase different aspects of ag in the area,” Donovan says.

Donovan says sharing the region’s agriculture story is equally important to Alyson Bremner, sales/crop advisor at Truro Agromart, who suggested she apply for a grant from ADAMA Canada’s Stomping Grounds community investment initiative.

Donovan’s application was selected for a $2,500 grant from the Stomping Grounds initiative.

Stomping Grounds

The, Hants County Exhibition is one of 23 community projects from across Canada that received funding from ADAMA this year. The company invested a total of $127,000 into the 23 projects and has contributed over half a million dollars since 2018 to strengthen the fabric of rural communities.

Gavin Lunn, Eastern Canada Key Account Manager, Neelan Edbom, National Sales Manager, and Drew Thompson, Technical Sales Agronomist, with ADAMA Canada, had the honour of personally delivering the cheque to the team at the Windsor Agricultural Society, which owns and operates Hants County Exhibition Park.

“Sheri wasn’t available unfortunately, but the staff gave Neelan, Drew, and I a little tour of the park, and we didn’t know it at the time, but the fair has been running for over 260 years,” says Lunn. “Nothing lasts that long without a team of passionate people behind it.”

“The passion of the team was obvious,” adds Edbom. “They were a little bit disappointed they weren’t able to put up a more permanent structure to hold the demonstrations this year, but they were very thankful for our grant and that it’ll help them introduce more people to ag in the area.”

Donovan says she and the team aren’t deterred by their original plans falling through.

“Like lots of times in life, you just pivot. We just really hope the people that come through appreciate what we're trying to do and leave at the end of the day with a little bit more knowledge about what happens at an exhibition and the role agriculture plays in our everyday lives,” she says.