Life memberships for local men

Details

Published on Thursday, October 30, 2014

By Sheila Runions

      Banner Staff

Manitoba Association of Agricultural Societies held its annual conference Oct. 25 and 26 with the highlight being the awards ceremony and entertainment evening on Saturday.

Of the eight life memberships presented, four members were part of small-town ag societies, three were with Provincial Exhibition of Manitoba and one was from Portage Industrial Exhibition. Rivers was one of the small-town societies which had a member recognized at the banquet held in Brandon. 

The program included short biographies of each recipient, including this one for John Fast.

John has been a director with Rivers Ag Society since 1963. His dedication, loyalty, determination to make the fair a success and his commitment to the cause is why he is deserving of this recognition. John has been heavily involved with horse shows, assisting in organizing and maintaining the horse ring. He was actively involved in the planning and building of Phase 2 of the horse/cattle stalls. He assisted in the building of the washrooms by the barns, which became a tremendous asset to the patrons of ag society events. For many years, John has cut the grass and assisted in the maintenance of the fairgrounds and buildings. For any problem, we called John; he either fixed it himself or he found someone else to fix it. Just last summer he played a major role in the repairs of six sets of bleachers — not a small task.

John has made farming his life but worked for the Town of Rivers for 12 years as well. John has also served on several boards such as Rivers Pentecostal Church and Rivers Baptist Church, where he worked with youth. He was also on the Mennonite Cemetery Committee and spent three years with Cardale Workshop for the Handicapped.

John received his life membership certificate from Pat Crandell, who also gave one posthumously to Grant Moffat of Forrest (Provincial Ex) and to Stan Cochrane (Provincial Ex). Stan farms with his wife Pat and sons Darby and Kyle (who each own land in RM of Daly); they collect mail from Alexander’s rural route and consider themselves part of the Tarbolton district. His report read in part, “Stan is passionate about fairs and the people who organize them; his heart and soul are in the fair movement. Stan is one of those amazing volunteers and leaders who are always there when needed. He has spearheaded the major project of the renovation and refitting of the historic fair building into an interactive agricultural museum for children.”