Huron Expositor, 2016-08-03, Page 3Wednesday, August 3, 2016 • Huron Expositor 3
Seaforth Ambassador looks to make history
Shaun Gregory
Huron Expositor
Maranda wakes up every morning
and throws on her jeans and a pair of
cowboy boots, agriculture is her life.
To prove to the province those state-
ments are correct she will battle
roughly 90 other contestants, all are
trying to establish themselves as lit-
erally the best in the field.
An ambassador is away of repre-
senting your community and from
a farming aspect and being a Sea -
forth native, Maranda Klaver is
pretty much a legend around these
parts. Huron County as a whole
produces top -three figures for the
number of farmers in the area,
according to the Ontario Ministry
of Agriculture, Food and Rural
Affairs so that is no mean feat.
The 18 -year-old is heading to
Toronto to compete for the desig-
nation of the Ambassador of the
Fairs, a title more than 3,000 young
persons have tried to do in the last
forty years.
This year's champ will be hailed
across Ontario for 12 months as the
sole face of the Canadian National
Exhibition for all agriculture fairs.
Practically being born on a farm,
Klaver knows all the ins and outs of
livestock and cash crops, her family
currently produces corn, soybeans,
white beans and wheat and has for
quite some time.
This will mark the third Klaver to
compete in the provincial contest,
she follows in the footsteps of her
older sisters, Samantha and Dan-
ika. If she could make it into the top
seven she said it would be wonder-
ful, to her knowledge, no other
ambassador from Seaforth has
made it that far. She joked by saying
this would also come with bragging
rights with her older sisters.
"I want to do this so I can put
Seaforth on the map, you know if I
can make top three that would be
awesome," stated Klaver July 28.
"This is something that is a passion
to me I just really like the diversity of
it, how I could be in the field one day
with the crops or in the next day, in
the barn with the livestock."
For now, the farming enthusiast
is studying everything she knows
about the fair and how it came to
be, practicing her speeches and
doing whatever she can to walk
away as the champion.
Recently Klaver participated in
the District competition where she
was awarded second place, there
will be a lot more to this contest,
but the girl that is still in her teens
plans to outdo that placement with
a first place.
The 2016 Ambassador of the
Fairs competition will take place
August 19 -21, with the winner
being announced on August 21.
Maranda Klaver,18, from Seaforth, is set to compete against 90 other people
from the province at the Ambassador of the Fair in Toronto.
Young entrepreneurs kick-start summer businesses with provincial grant
Justin Alkema
Postmedia Network
Six youth from Huron County
have taken advantage of a provin-
cial grant to help kick-start their
summer businesses. The Summer
Program is a grant for individuals
ages 15-29 that provides $3000 and
professional mentorship for those
starting summer businesses.
Two of those youth are particu-
larly local and are located just out-
side of Clinton and in Bayfield.
15 year-old Marty Phillips is
operating "Hens & Harvest" just
outside of Clinton. Phillips sells
organic vegetables as well as
broiler chickens and free range
eggs.
Phillips has always enjoyed
growing vegetables. Before he
opened his business, he had a
small vegetable garden and about a
dozen chickens. His mom was the
one who found out about Summer
Company, and suggested that he
grow his small operation into a
summer job with the grant's help.
"She knew I would be interested
in it because I already have chick-
ens and vegetables," said Phillips.
He used the $3000 to buy new
hens and chickens, to get garden
mats and to fix up his chicken
coop. Now he has around 90 birds
as well as a large garden where he
grows tomatoes, peppers, onions,
green beans, snap peas, squash
and lettuce.
Philips usually goes into town a
few days a week to deliver eggs to
his regular customers. Most of his
vegetables aren't quite ready yet,
but they will be in the next couple
weeks. Anyone who is interested
can contact him at 519-671-2124.
Another local business operating
just outside of Bayfield is called
"Dirty Local Clothing". It was
started by Keenan Coombs, who is
a Bayfield native. He is home for
the summer but is headed to his
third year at Western University in
the fall.
"Basically, we are a t -shirt brand
which promotes and focuses on the
pride in being local," said Coombs.
Last summer, a woman was visit-
ing Bayfield with her child. They
walked past Coombs's 14 year-old
cousin, Nigel, who has blue hair.
When the child said they liked
Nigel's hair, the woman said,
"Don't talk to him; he's a dirty
local."
Nigel and Coombs laughed
about the story, and then more
seriously considered, who
wouldn't want to be a local? Partic-
ularly in the beautiful Huron
County.
Based off this experience, they
envisioned Dirty Local Clothing.
However at that point, it was just
One of the t -shirts for sale on
dirtylocal.com, a business started by
Bayfield's Keenan Coombs.
an idea.
Once they got the funding, they
got the business going. They used
the majority of that money to buy
the first batch of t -shirts. He said
that although there was a chance
they might have started the
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company without the funding, it
really helped them avoid that initial
risk.
Their products can be found on
dirtylocal.ca.
Both Phillips and Coombs oper-
ate their businesses full time; this is
THE BLUFFS AT HURON
A Parkbridge Community
a requirement for the grant.
They also both plan on continu-
ing their companies after this sum-
mer. In fact, 75% of businesses
started through Summer Company
continue after the summer they
began in.
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