The Rural Voice, 1980-09, Page 6Rural families are
involved in a lot
besides farming
BY HERB SHOVELLER
Farming is hard work, and it also takes up a great deal of the
modern farm family's time. But still, somehow, a lot of farm
families lead very active "other" lives, participating in their
communities in a huge variety of ways.
Rural Voice this month talked to two families who are very
active in their on and off farm lives, the Ginns, who farm near
Holmesville in Huron County, and the McNeils, whose farm is
also in Huron, north of Goderich.
THE GINNS
The list of Gerry Ginn's involve-
ments over the past 25 years seems to
tun on endlessly, but, ironically, his
first plunge into community life on a
large scale came about accidentally he
says.
"My first start was by appointment,"
he said. "1 always tell the story that I
thought they made a mistake. I thought
they wanted my father."
His wife Jean gave him a nudge..
"He wasn't going to take it." she
said. "I said, 'Go ahead', and he hasn't
stopped since."
That appointment was to the
Goderich high school board in 1955, and
he remained with it for the next nine
years. In his last four years he served on
the advisory vocational committee for
Huron County. In 1965 and 1966 he was
a member of the Huron County Board of
Education.
Beginning in 1967, Gerry spent
twelve years on the Goderich township
council. Four were served as a
councillor, four as deputy reeve and the
final four as reeve.
In his climb through the political
ranks the next logical step was to seek
the post of warden of Huron County
Council, which was the only time he has
had to run in an election. He won.
Not all of his time was given over to
the duties as warden, or other county
council activities. Gerry is a member of
the Huron -Middlesex Progressive
Conservative partyand has served as
vice-president of the provincial riding
associaton.
He is also a member of the
township recreation committee and on
the board of stewards of the Holmesville
1;NTY
y
The Ginns: "We Ilke people and enjoy meeting them."
United Church. He sits on the Goderich
Hospital Board and is past president of
his lodge, Canadian Foresters' Court
Benmiller.
Gerry is also a member of the Huron
County land division committee.
On top of all that. the man somehow
finds the time to run his dairy operation.
Wife Jean says her main task at the
farm is to co-ordinate the goings on. Not
much more could be expected of her.
After all, fair is fair -she's as active as
Gerry.
Jean is a past president of both the
Taylor's Corners Community Club and
the Court Fascination Lodge, the
current president of the Holmesville
U.C.W. and a member of the Huron
Perth Presbytery.
"I've also been active with the
Goderich branch of the Canadian
Cancer Society for the past 15 or 20
years," she said. "I've been vice-presi-
dent, chairman of education and now
I'm planning, development and nomi-
nations chairman.
Jean is also on the committee to
remodel the basement of the Holmes-
ville church.
The couple's work together does
centre around the church and it s
activities. Currently they are on a
tri -church committee to adopt a refugee
family, and several years ago they were
church leaders involved with local
teenagers.
"Of all the things we've done," said
Jean of the six years they spent with
the young people, "I've enjoyed that as
much as anything. They were really a
PG. 4 THE RURAL VOICE/SEPTEMBER 1980
good bunch of kids." Still, several years
later, the Ginns often hear from many of
the teenagers who participated in the
program.
There are five Ginn children. Jon, 29,
is married and works for Champion in
Goderich and is a graduate of Waterloo
Lutheran University. Nancy, 26, is
married with two children and is a
registered nurse. She lives in London.
Daughter Laurie, married as well, is a
public health nurse in Huron County.
The two youngest are Jim, 25, and Jan,
22. Jim works with Gerry on the farm
and Jan, while at home now, is a
graduate of the University of Waterloo.
Their parents met in 1947 in Oshawa
where Jean worked for Bell and Gerry
was working for Northern Electric.
Gerry's employer was doing work for
Bell.
WIRES CROSSED
"You could say we made a
connection," noted Gerry.
"We got our wires crossed," added
Jean.
They married in 1950, returned to
Huron County in 1951, and bought their
farm in 1952.
Their grandchildren are seventh
generation Ginns. The family settled in
the area in 1829, and Gerry's brother
Ray (better known as Pat) still operates
the Ginn Family farm. It's the oldest
centennial farm in Huron County.__
Help from their five children has
allowed Gerry and Jean to keep
involved in their outside activities, and
the children still lend a hand at home.
YOU CAN HELP SO MANY
It all adds up to a lot of time spent