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| | | | § 14 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Tues. January 24, 1984 Blackstock Area News by Joyce Kelly The Blackstock Treasurer's report Agricultural Society held showed a good standing its annual banquet and ending the year 1963. meeting on Friday even- Joyce Taylor gave us a ing at the Recreational thoughtful worship from Centre. After a delicious . the book "Change and served by the A.C.W. President Ken Crawford welcomed the large number of directors and their spouses to the meeting. "Two delightful solos by Lynn McLaughlin ac- companied by her mother Linda McLaughlin were en- joyed by all. Vice- president Roly Coy in- troduced the head table and other guests present. Ken in his president's message touched on the highlights of the 1983 Fair including the presi- dent's bed in the Bedrace. The treasurer's report showed an in- creased balance of over $2000 from last year's balance. Each chairman gave a report of each section of the fair. The Hall Trophy was presented to Glenn Larmer who won this year's Field Crop Com- petition. Jack Green also presented him with a Funks Corn Certificate. Bob Atfield gave a slide presentation which showed many features of the 1983 Fair. It was a chance for many of our busy directors to see sec- tions of the fair that they had missed on Fair Day. Linda McLaughlin presented the report of the nominating commit- . tee which was accepted. At this point in the pro- gramme, Ken Crawford made a surprise presen- tation of an Agricultural Service Diploma to Walter and Audrey Wright for their great service to our society and to the agricultural com- munity over the past years. This is a very special award this is on- ly the third such presen- tation in- anyone's memory present. Walter delighted everyone with his response. Ken pointed out that this is not a retirement gift as we hope the Wrights will continue to serve the Society. Guest speaker of the evening was Ken Knox, Director of the Rural Organizations and Ser- vice Branch of the Ministry of Agriculture. Ken's address was filled with enthusiastic ideas for improving any organization. Apprecia- tion was expressed by President Ken. Thirteen ladies and one little girl met at the home of Anita Davis for the morning unit of the U.C.W. on Tuesday morning. Minutes were read and approved. A committee was set up to cater to the Lion's dinner on February 1st. Points' and read the hymn *'Just When I Need Him Most - Jesus is Here." Eleanor Werry gave an interesting program on Our Community and asked some questions for discussion. What would a tourist think? How do our: newcomers feel? How many changes in the last 30 years? Prayer ended the meeting. The Afternoon unit of Blackstock United Church met at the home of Dora Martyn on Tues- day afternoon. After a delicious dessert, Jean Adams, the leader welcomed the ladies and as the devotion she used a tape in songs and words of one of her relatives. The Roll Call 'was paying membership. Business was making plans for the coming year. Audrey Wright had gone over minutes of the U.C.W. books for the past twenty years and reviewed some of the _highlights- some of the events, some weddings that had been catered, a list of unit leaders, speakers and other most interesting information that most members had forgotten. Meeting clos- ed with prayer. The January meeting of the ONO was held at the home of Kathleen Dorrell. While waiting for everyone to arrive, we enjoyed a few ques- tions from the game of Trivia Pursuit. Aileen Van Camp welcomed everyone to the meeting and thanked the 1983 executive for a most successful year. The minutes from the December meeting were read and approved, followed by a treasurer's report. Since some of the tables and chairs at the Bec Centre are broken, it was decided to pay for repairs and to purchase ten new tables and thirty- four new chairs. It was decided to make a dona tion to the McGarvey family, and also that we add to the February Roll Call, a gift for a kitchen shower - things such as mixing bowls, measur- ing utensils, spices, flavourings, staples to be given to the McGarvey's. The 1983 ONO coffee spoons were given out after which Roll Call was answered by A Trip I Would Like To Take In 1984. Following the meeting, a fun game with cards and pennies. Prize win- ners were- Barb Byers- high winner and Carole tecki- low winner. thleen served a very delicious dessert lunch. February meeting will be held at the home of Doreen Van Camp. Many of the local Junior Farmers attend- ed the various competi- tions in the Zone Games held in Durham West on Saturday. A large dance held in Uxbridge in the evening concluded an en- joyable day. Eight couples from the area enjoyed a weekend holiday at Pine Stone in Haliburton. Many grand- parents were kept busy babysitting all the many children who were also having a "holiday.'"' Those who enjoyed the weekend were- Sharon and George Wilson; Brian and Carolyn Mor- ton; Jim and Barb Byers; Don and Louise Swain| Jim and Susan Swain, il and Talya Moore; Dave and Donna Kyte and Grant and Bar- bara Larmer. Gerald and Joyce Kel- ly and girls were Sunday evening dinner guests of John and Jean Medland, Brooklin. Plans are well under- way for the Annual Robert Fletcher Memorial Bonspiel, which will be held on Saturday, February 4th. There are still a few openings, so you are urg- ed to contact either David Larmer or Neil McLaughlin as soon as possible. Tickets are available also for the banquet and/or the dance for non-curlers. Sunday was the thir- tieth wedding anniver- sary of Dale and Anita Davis. On Friday even- ing, their family took the honoured couple out for dinner and a family celebration of the happy event. On Sunday morn- ing the congregation sur- prised their minister and his wife with the presen- tation of a lovely floral arrangement along with sincere good wishes. There were twelve tables at the weekly euchre party on Tuesday evening with the follow- ing winners- 1. Elva Van Camp- 92; 2. Bruce Bright- 84; 3. Arvella Barrett- 83; 4. Ann Taylor- 81; 5. Harold McDiarmid- 80; 6. Ber- nice Wells-80; Low- Belle Werry; Draws- 1. Ella Venning; 2. Lorna Swain; 3. Neta Masters. Nursery School Meeting The Nursery School meeting was held in the Nursery School on January 10th. Two members of the ex- ecutive gave birth to baby girls over the past few weeks- Vice- president Dal Muirhead .on December 19th and Judy Henry on January 1st. Judy's baby was the second to be born in the New Yéar at Oshawa General. There are now six openings for nursery school classes. Anyone wishing to enroll their child for the rest of the year can call Dale Muirhead at 986-4868. The Valentine Dance is on February 11th from 8:00till 1:00. The D.J. is Brian Stephenson. Dress is semi-formal- no jeans, 'Walter, Audrey Wright honoured by Fair Board please. Tickets are $12.00 per couple and can be ob- tained by calling Marlene McKee at 986-5264. Blackstock Nursery School recently became a co-operative corpora- tion and is now Blackstock Co-operative Nursery School Inc., ef- fective December 20th. Bishop Hunt and his wife attended the St. John's Anglican Church last Sunday. Bishop Hunt conducted Communion at this very special service. Attention-- all girls from 12to 21: 4-H will be starting soon. There are three groups depending on ages of the girls. This year's club will be Quilting and certainly should be interesting. The Senior Club will be starting on Wednesday, February 1, at the Old Town Hall for girls from Grade 11 and up. On Sunday, John and Linda Hodge and family of Port Hope visited his mother and brother Marion and Tommy Hodge. Board The Fair business is just that- a business, and the agricultural fairs in rural Ontario must be run like a bus- iness if they are to con- tinue to flourish or even survive. That was the message from Ken Knox, direct- or of the Rural Organ- izations and Services with the provincial Agriculture Ministry, as Guest Ken Knox, (right) was the guest speaker at the Blackstock Agricultural Society annual meeting last Friday night and along with a lot of humour and enthusiasm, he had some words of advice on how to make rural farm fairs better. At left is Society president Ken Crawford. speaker tells he was guest speaker Friday evening at the annual meeting of the Blackstock Agricultural Society, the group which stages the one day farm fair in that community each August. Mr. Knox entertained his audience with a very enthusiastic and de- lightfully humourous speech, but his message was clear enough that to keep working organizers of the fall fairs must be constantly talking about new ideas, innovating, and bring- ing non-farm commun- ity groups-and individ- uals into the fair. "Agricultural Soc- iesties must address the rural-urban relations issue, and they must get the story of agriculture to the urban people,' he said during his 20 min- Glen Larmer (right) was presented with a trophy for the an- nual field crop competitions last year. Making the presentation was Jack Green. ute address. He noted that over the past few years, some of the farm fairs in rural Ontario have fallen on hard times, partly due to the generally un- stable economic climate, but also due to the fact they either didn't do enough to keep up with changing times or forged ahead with plans that were too cost- ly and grandiose. Referring to the Blackstock Fair, Mr. Knox told the group that "you have a tremendous fair here. Keep it that way. Be creative and work hard at your marketing." He said it is very important that young people be given the chance to take part in organization of the rural fairs, and that organ- izers set goals and talk about new ideas. He said it is important that agriculture ideas be communicated through the fall fairs as less than four per cent of the population of the country now lives on farms. Mr. Knox is no stran- ger to farm fairs. His job with the Agriculture Ministry puts him in direct contact with groups all across Ont- ario who stage the fairs, and since he lives close to Blackstock, has attended the fair there on many occasions. His speech and the message was well rec- eived by the approx- imately 100 people who attended the banquet and annual meeting in the Blackstock Rec- reation Centre.