ESTEVAN - The Estevan Farm Family of the Year Award will once again be handed out in a private setting rather than during a big traditional Farmers' Appreciation Evening.
The Estevan Chamber of Commerce and the Estevan Exhibition Association opted for following the same path as they did last year. Jackie Wall, executive director with the chamber, asked the public to watch their website as nominations will be opening shortly.
People will have an opportunity to nominate deserving families up to March 31, and then once the decision on the winners is made, the family will be contacted to arrange a celebratory meal.
"I'm hoping to get the package together as soon as possible. We will be going out to sponsors as well shortly," Wall said.
"Because of everything that's been happening and because of the projections with COVID, we've decided we are going to stick with a private event, similar to last year, where the winner of the Farm Family (Award) will receive a meal out to their farm at their convenience. We're thinking perhaps after seeding. Once we have the winner picked, we contact them, we will have a date that that will happen. And then we are going to proceed with a feature of the farm families through social media, through video through YouTube, and do it similar to last year."
There are some nominations from previous years, but they hope to see more coming in.
"We really encourage people to send in their nominations. That gives us a nice cross-section to be able to choose from. And we will be sending out all the communications for that. We contact all of the different RMs and we try to get this out as much as possible so that we can have a really nice nomination list," Wall said.
Producers in the Rural Municipalities of Estevan, Benson, Browning, Cymri, Cambria, Enniskillen, Coalfields, Griffin, Moose Creek, Souris Valley, Tecumseh and Brock are eligible. Besides the farming successes, which can be small or big, the jury also looks at how the family has had an impact within their community as a whole, and within the farming sector.
Every year, the farm family event also supports an agricultural scholarship granted to a local student.
"This scholarship is for a farm family student. So basically, they have to prove that they are farming through a land location number. And then some other criteria are preferable. For example, if they are going into something that's ag-related, although that is not a requirement, and then also if they have participated in one of the regional 4-H clubs as well," Wall explained.
The scholarship is to be given to a high school student from this region that will be graduating within 18 months.
"It is a minimum of $500. However, if we have a very successful sponsorship amount, and we raise extra money from the event, then we up the scholarship amount, depending on how successful the event is," Wall said.
The application for the scholarship is separate from the Farm Family Award nomination and can be done through high schools. The chamber is currently putting the application together and it will be available for the students in the near future.
Wall explained that once the nomination packages are ready, they will start looking for sponsors for the event as a whole and also different parts of it.
The nomination packages for the Farm Family Award will be available at estevanchamber.ca.
"We really want to showcase how a lot of the farmers have a huge impact not only in the farming sector as far as their peers but also within their communities. A lot of them are very active in their communities, their local rinks, their local 4-H, their local sports. And we just want to recognize that farmers do contribute a lot to our economy and also to the communities where they live. It's an honour to be able to take time to really celebrate that," Wall said.
