By Chris Zimmerman
DRAYTON – After three years of cancellations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Drayton Farm show will return to the PMD arena on April 12 (11am to 10pm) and 13 (11am to 9pm).
In 1981 members of the Drayton Kinsmen Club came up with the idea of showcasing and promoting local farm
businesses.
This year’s agribusiness showcase, the 39th event, is headed up by Kinsmen member and farm show chairman Ray Kuper.
“I think everyone’s pretty excited that it’s coming back. I think we’ll probably have a record-breaking attendance year,” Kuper told the Advertiser Organizers of this year’s
event are anticipating around 2,000 attendees during the two-day event, which raises money for cystic fibrosis research and local community improvement projects.
Tickets will be sold at the door and admission is $5 for adults and $2 for children; those aged 8 and under are free.
Fifty per cent of admis-
sion fees are donated to cystic fibrosis research, a cause the Kinsmen support at a national level.
“It’s a major fundraiser for the Drayton Kinsmen and it generates a lot of money that is usually put back into parks and recreation of some sort in the community,” Kuper said.
A long-standing tradition for the show is the sale of
a unique toy tractor every year.
This year’s collectible tractor is the Case International 4894. The real eight wheel, 300 horsepower Case International 4894 was built from 1984 to 1987. Only 872 were manufactured at the original price of $95,000.
“We have a customized tractor that we pick up and put our Drayton Kinsmen Farm Show stickers on,” Kuper said.
“We might add a light or paint it; it just depends on what we think will spruce it up.”
He added, “We usually have a John Deere but the
odd time we step outside the box and go with Case International, or something by Ford.”
The event features the latest in agricultural technology and provides an opportunity for farmers and suppliers to talk shop.
It’s also a chance for community members to celebrate their rural roots.
“We’ll see what some of the tractor dealers have on site this year,” Kuper said.
“We could see a lot of new upgraded equipment, especially after three years of not having a show. There’s probably a dozen pieces of equipment that are going to be sitting in the parking lot.”
39 20 | THE WELLINGTON ADVERTISER | APRIL 6, 2023
ayto
Annual
Wednesday
By Chris Zimmerman
MAPLETON – The organizers of the seventh annual Drayton Farm Show in 1988 decided to offer a collectible model tractor to attendees.
Thirty-five years later, the anticipation of adding to collections has become a time-honoured tradition.
Former Mapleton mayor Neil Driscoll has an extensive collection that was passed down to him by his father Stan.
It has grown to include every tractor available to date at the Drayton Farm Show.
Stan passed away in 2007 but was always a pillar of the community. He served as a Kinsmen member for many years, and his dedication to the farm show helped mould it to what it is today.
“We’ve (Hensall Co-op, formerly Driscoll Farms) had a booth at the farm show, probably for 15 years now,” Driscoll said.
Having attended dozens of shows since he was young, Driscoll’s booth is a means to connect with the community. He pops fresh popcorn on site and will again be participating in this year’s event.
“The biggest reason we go is to meet up with local people and our customers,” he said.
“Life is so busy – we don’t have time, it seems, to visit anymore.
“This is one time of year we get to see everybody that comes to the show that we either deal with or know personally. It’s honestly just a great community event that gets businesses out to see people.”
After his father’s passing, Driscoll donated the original Cockshutt toy tractor from the 1988 show to the Kinsmen Club in Drayton.
“We actually put it on a plaque and donated it back to the club because they had sold out that first year and didn’t even keep a model for their own showcase,” Driscoll said.
When asked if he was happy with the variety of tractors made for the show, Driscoll said the Kinsmen have done a really good job of representing various brands.
While the model collection is impressive, Driscoll’s assortment of around 10 full scale pre-1980 tractors is also
quite estimable. His restored standard McCormick W-4 was on display at last year’s tractor tour in Palmerston and his farm property has been the venue for ploughing competitions and, more recently, snowmobile grass drag races.
Less than a 10-minute drive down the road, Moorefield resident and former Kinsmen Arden Mick has also been collecting the tractors since day one.
“I have them all,” Mick said. “I’ve got the first one through to the last one that was produced.”
This, of course, includes the tractor for the 2020 show that was cancelled at the start of the pandemic.
Because supplies of the models are limited, Mick was sure to get his order placed early for the upcoming show.
“This year’s tractor is preordered. That responsibility is my wife’s,” said Mick.
“Very early on it came up that my birthday is about the same time of the year, so I’ve been able to get the tractors by calling it my birthday present.”
With a penchant for antique tractors, Mick would like to see more of the “old stuff, that a lot of people have never seen”.
He’s always had a passion for the John Deere and McCormick machines and hopes to see some at the show this spring.
“I think the show is about connecting farmers and commercial people,” he said.
“It’s educational, and great for kids who don’t get a chance to look at agricultural things. All around it’s a nice little fundraiser for the community.
“The money all goes back into the community which helps down the road, so it’s multi-fold.”
Event organizers are
hopeful this year’s show will return to pre-pandemic attendance.
“I was quite pleased to hear the [Kinsmen] are back at it again, and from many
reports I’ve got, it’s been very well received in the farming and commercial communities,” Mick added. “Hopefully, it’s
A brief history of Kin Canada and its role in Wellington County
By Chris Zimmerman WELLINGTON–
But who are the Kinsmen and how has the organization benefitted Canadians?
Kin Canada (formerly the Kinsmen and Kinette Clubs of Canada) is a secular Canadian non-profit service organization that promotes service, fellowship, positive values, and national pride.
Since the organization’s founding, clubs have raised over $1 billion dollars for Canadian communities.
In 1920, not long after returning from the First World War, Harold (Hal) Rogers found himself missing the camaraderie of men with similar ideals and decided to join the local Rotary Club, where his father was a
member.
Rogers had worked as a plumbing salesman for his father and because of a Rotary regulation at the time restricting membership to one person per employment classification, his application was denied.
Not one to be easily discouraged, Rogers decided to start his own club.
On Feb. 20, 1920, Hal invited a group of like-minded young men to have dinner at the Nam King café in Hamilton and the Young Men’s Business Club was formed.
Some time later, the club’s name was changed to the Kinsmen Club of Canada – a recommendation of Hal’s father who happened to be reading literature by Mark Twain that mentioned the name Kinsmen.
Trevor Thompson was among the original four members of the Kinsmen Club and played an integral
role in expanding operations nationally.
His grandson, Sean Thompson served as national president from 2009-2010 and is a lifetime member of the Gananoque Kin Club.
“Back in the 1920s, there was nothing to stop people from sort of grabbing the world by the tail,” Thompson told the Advertiser
“As members started to move across the country, new clubs formed with them. A member would move to Montreal, Winnipeg, or Calgary, chartering new clubs, and that’s how Kin started to grow.
“Hal would go out to meetings and speak, whereas my grandfather was considered an operations person who would go out and start clubs. He probably chartered 40 clubs in his lifetime.”
Thompson has worn a lot of hats within the organization over the years.
He credits Kin Canada with much of his success.
“I’ve received so much, whether through learning how to become better at business, public speaking, managing, accounting and all the different things that I’ve become skilled at, I largely attribute to being involved in Kin,” Thompson said.
“I’m a believer that what you put in, you get back tenfold. I’ve put a lot into Kin over the years, and I’ve always felt that I’ve gotten more back.”
Since 1964, Kin Canada has supported Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Canada, often raising over $1 million per year for CF research and treatment. To date, Kin clubs have raised more than $50 million for CF.
“Back in the 60s, one of our members had stopped into a bar and there was a gentleman there who turned out to be a doctor who worked at SickKids. The idea of the Kinsmen engaging with CF came up and it caught fire with Kin, becoming a national project,” Thompson said.
Today, around 7,000 members belong to about 600 Kin clubs from coast to coast.
Kin Canada’s motto is “serving the community’s greatest need,” a saying current national president Cameron Kemp strongly believes in.
“Every individual club gets to assess what their com-
munity’s greatest need is on their own,” Kemp said in a March 30 phone interview.
“It could be fitness equipment or parks in one community, or helping the elderly in another, or reducing homelessness in a third, so we don’t mandate that.”
Kemp has been part of the organization for 18 years and has always had a drive to give back to his community through fundraising and spearheading projects and events.
“My slogan this year is ‘be a spark,’ which has multiple connotations,” he said.
“For example, be a spark in your community for volunteerism or be a spark for other members of your community to join Kin. It was designed so there would be a lot of options to be used with the ‘be a spark’ headline.”
Kemp said clubs across Canada make their own decisions regarding how money is used. While the majority of funds stay within local communities, each club decides independently how much to invest nationally or within their district initiatives.
The organizers of the Drayton Farm Show are committed to donating to CF Canada and working towards the betterment of their community.
“It’s very rewarding to see [the Drayton Kinsmen club] continuing to work on a project that has the kind of history in their community
that it does,” Kemp said of the farm show.
“We all know that over time those types of projects need to adapt and it’s beautiful to see something running that long still supported by the community at large as well as by the club.”
Prominent members of Kin Canada in the past include Prime Minister John Diefenbaker and Ontario Premier Ernie Eves.
For more information about visit kincanada.ca or email info@kincanada.ca.
