The Rural Voice, 2001-09, Page 36GETTING READY
Volunteers for the 2002 International Plowing Match
in Middlesex County will be close observers at this
year's match in Ottawa -Carleton.
By Mark Nonkes
Site of
Rralinternational Plowing Match
��
& Farm Machinery
hough still a year away, the
2002 International Plowing
Match in Middlesex County is
getting into swing with preparations.
The 2002 match on a farm near
Glencoe hopes to transform matches
for the future.
The first and most noticeable
change will be the match's new name
the 2002 Rural Expo. According to
Don McDonald. owner of the farm
where the plowing match will be
held. the new name is designed to
attract more urban dwellers. The
organizers of the match are hoping
for crowds of half a million and since
the match is close to London and
Chatham urban dwellers are more
likely to attend a "rural expo" than a
"plowing match", McDonald
explained.
Also for the first time, the Plowing
Match will be run in conjunction
with the Glencoe Fair. For one price
people will be admitted to both the
fall fair and.the plowing match.
Volunteers earlier this summer got
to see the first concrete evidence of
their efforts for the 2002 IPM when
a sign was unveiled on the
Glencoe -area site.
2000 IPM organizers expect 250,000
Organizers of this year's International Plowing
Match, called Rural Expo 2001, hope to attract
250,000 visitors to the site near south of Ottawa,
September 18 to 22. This year's IPM will take place over
1,500 acres of leased land near the crossroads of Frank
Kenny and Colonial Roads near the village of Navan.
Because of the location of the match, close to Ottawa,
organizers have made the match a "Rural Expo" and hope
to educate urbanites about rural life.
"All committees are encouraged to think education for
both the rural and urban sector, regardless. This will be an
event for the family, from kids to parents and grandpar-
ents," said IPM 2001 chair Sam Dagg said.
"Educational things have always been part of the
match," said IPM communications chair John Geiger.
"Certainly for us, one objective is to try to educate people
as to what goes on in the process of food going from the
ground to your table, what rural living is about and the
benefits of living in the country."
Included in the educational focus will be a conservation
area where a tent with displays of 40 conservation groups
will open onto a forested area, where guided tours will be
conducted around a four km. trail, which will wind
through hardwood and cedar woodlots, in both managed
and unmanaged areas. Demonstrations of logging, portable
saw mills, small woodlot owner equipment and horse log-
ging, will be explained by the tour guide.
"The focus will not just be on logging, but on conserva-
tion aspects. There will be information on wildlife, on the
value of dead trees in a wood lot, and the value deer can
play," said Mike Rosen, Ottawa Stewardship Council co-
ordinator, who is in charge of conservation.
The Expo will feature between 600-800 exhibitions
housed in the tented city. The theme of the exhibits —
which will range from historical and modern farm equip-
ment to food and fashion — will be centered around the
principles and practices of rural living.
"Just about anything you care to imagine will be there,"
says Geiger. "There are so many different things that it
seems that every time I mention it I, can't remember all the
things that are going to be there."
Entertainment will be provided on five separate stages
and the Expo will feature about 50 food concession stands.
Geiger says the Rural Expo is expected to cost about $3
million and generate profits of about $1 million which will
be donated to the cancer assessment centres of the Ottawa
Hospital.
Geiger says the profits will be generated by the masses
of people visiting the Rural Expo. If the weather co-oper-
ates Geiger says he expects about 250,000 visitors to pass
through the turnstiles — more than double the average
attendance in recent years. 0
32 THE RURAL VOICE