A scholarship fund created after Lambton County hosted the International Plowing Match three decades ago is still going strong and its trustees have decided to boost the value of the annual awards.
A scholarship fund created after Lambton County hosted the International Plowing Match three decades ago is still going strong, and its trustees have decided to boost the value of the annual awards.
The fund announced the three scholarships it awards annually will now be $2,000 each – double the value awarded in recent years.
Applications for this year’s scholarships are being accepted until Sept. 15. Information about how to apply is available by contacting Bryan Boyle, one of the trustees, by email at [email protected].
The awards for post-secondary students are based on community Involvement, academic record and financial need.
Boyle said the scholarships started out at $2,000 three decades ago, but the amount decreased over time because of declines in interest income. This year, however, the trustees decided to set the amount of each award at $2,000 again because it’s a “more meaningful” amount considering the cost of post-secondary education.
The scholarship fund was created from more than $100,000 in profit earned by the volunteers who headed up the 1991 International Plowing Match held that year on a farm outside of Petrolia.
Approximately 100 or more scholarships have been awarded since it began.
Boyle said plowing match organizers in Lambton decided not to follow the typical pattern where local committee members received modest per diems from any profit based on how many organizing meetings they attended, Boyle said.
If there’s any money left over after that, it’s has often been donated to a charity “and that was the end of the story,” he said.
But with encouragement from plowing match chairperson, the late Leonard McNeil, the Lambton volunteers decided to put local the profit into the scholarship fund after using a little bit of cash to hold a roast beef supper to thank everyone who helped out.
“That still left well over $100,000 to be invested,” Boyle said.
The aim was to “allow the money to stay in the community and do something meaningful that would remind people of the positive things that happened at match time, and the volunteer efforts,” he said.
The 1991 International Plowing Match welcomed more than 90,000 visitors over several days for the massive farm show and plowing competition.
“Every year, we’re reminded at this time of all the positives that came out of that,” Boyle said.
The scholarships have been announced at the Brigden Fair on Thanksgiving Weekend in recent times, although they switched to online presentations for the past two years because of the pandemic.
Boyle said the plan is to return to the Brigden Fair for this year’s announcement.