The Royal Manitoba Winter Fair does not take place until March of next year, but nominations are open for the annual BMO Farm Family Awards.
The award highlights farm families who are active in their communities in agriculture and outside of it too.
"Any farming family can be put up for nomination, we're looking for that community involvement as well as the agricultural involvement. There's a lot of farm families that have many interests in local communities, from being coaches, to volunteers on boards, to even participating in local government", commented Mark Humphries, the General Manager of Provincial Exhibition of Manitoba, which hosts the fair.
Humphries says the winners of the award will receive V.I.P. treatment at the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair, including getting an opportunity to go behind-the-scenes at the fair. There will also be an award luncheon for them and they will be recognized during an evening performance. All nominees will receive a plaque to display at their farms as well.
"It's a lovely recognition of what farming folk do, we're always really happy to see them at the fair, and hear about what contributions they make to not only agricultural and farming in general, but also for local communities", said Humphries.
The deadline to submit a nomination is January 30th, 2023, and the form can be found here. The criteria is pretty simple, nominees must:
- Be actively involved in agriculture and community.
- Rely on agriculture as a major source of income.
- Have some family members reside on the farm that are active in primary agriculture.