The Rural Voice, 2006-02, Page 54People in Agriculture
Lucknow's Brad Gilchrist wins
$1,000 CKNX FAB bursary
•r.
tt
2-1111
J
Brad Gilchrist (right) accepts a CKNX Radio Farm Advisory Board bursary
$1,000 bursary from Andrew Campbell, the station's farm director.
Madill Secondary School. He has
worked at Wingham Veterinary
Clinic and weekends and summer
holidays ever since.
"I was really surprised when I
found out (I had won the bursary),"
Gilchrist told The Lucknow Sentinel.
"They called me at school to tell
me."
Gilchrist is currently in his second
year of the Agricultural Science
program at the University of Guelph
and hasn't decided on his career path
when he graduates.0
A young Lucknow-area farmer
who has already made his mark in
agriculture by winning the 2003
Queen's Guineas competition at the
Royal Winter Fair has received a
boost to help complete his education.
Brad Gilchrist, son of Grant and
Denise Gilchrist, R.R.5, Lucknow
received the $1,000 Farm Advisory
Board bursary from CKNX radio. He
was nominated by Wingham
veterinarian Allen Hawkins, with
whom he served a co-op placement
while a grade 11 student at F. E.
Walton girl collects coats for homeless
Abby McGavin may only be 10
years old but the daughter of Walton -
area residents Brian and Shelley
McGavin, already has a remarkable
record of helping people.
It began with a family trip to
Toronto to see The Lion King when
Abby began to ask about the
homeless people she saw in the
streets. She had a hard time falling
asleep. Her parents contacted a
minister at a downtown Toronto
church who used to preach in
Brucefield. Abby collected 72 coats
the first year which were distributed
through the church's drop-in centre.
The next year, it was 79. This past
year the total 82 coats were collected
with help from her church and her
hockey team.
Father and daughter spent a day
delivering the coats to Toronto.0
Visiting student gets
a chilly view of
Canadian agriculture
The weather provided just one of
the startling changes witnessed by
Australian farm girl Hannah
Arnold when she arrived in early
December for an exchange visit in
Canada, staying with Christina and
Paul Scott of Exeter.
While Ontario at that time was
covered with snow, back home in
Gregory Downs the temperature
was 40 degrees Celsius. "There are
no seasons, it's just hot," she told
the Exeter Times Advocate.
The scale of farming in Ontario
is also considerably different for
Arnold. Her parents, three sisters
and one brother have a 268,000 -
hectare cattle station six hours from
Australia's north coast. A typical
day for the family starts at 4:00
a.m. and ends at 8:00 p.m. caring
for 24,000 head of cattle, she said.
Much of the work is done on horse
back, although a neighbour's
helicopter is available if needed.
Checking the miles of fences is a
regular job on the farm and her 13 -
year -old brother camps out for
several days at a time to carry out
the task.
Arnold found southern Ontario
more crowded and compact than
her homeland. Not much wonder.
The closest town to the Arnolds'
home is six hours away and they
only visit "if something breaks."
Mail for the family is flown in once
a week with groceries trucked in
once every three months. Medical
care comes from the flying doctor
in emergencies. The children are
home -schooled until they are 13
when they attend boarding school.
Arnold hopes to go to university
and study medicine to become a
flying doctor.
Dangers can be exotic compared
to Ontario. Her brother stands
watch with a shotgun while they go
swimming in case a crocodile
arrives. Their house is build on
stilts so that in flood season
crocodiles and snakes can't get in.0