Howick-Turnberry Fall Fair is known for having one of the largest and best Ambassador competitions in our district. We have several local service groups who regularly sponsor our competetors! Thank You for all your support.
2019/2020 FALL FAIR AMBASSADOR - DEZIRAE WHITEHEAD
2018/2019 FALL FAIR AMBASSADOR - KAITLYN KAMRATH
Ambassador's Message
Throughout the 2018/2019 Ambassador Program I have experienced many wonderful events in the area as well as more to come. I have been able to be apart of events like the Wroxeter Christmas Parade, Howick Snowmobile Snow, as well as attend a District 8 meeting and workshop, OAAS Convention, and be apart of the District 8 competition that was held on the first weekend in May. Later on in the year before I hand down my title, I will attend the CNE in Toronto and compete for Ambassador of the fairs alongside 80 other ambassadors.
Fair Weekend and Experiences Leading Up Back in September 2018 just after the competition and being named this years Howick Turnberry Fall Fair Ambassador, I was able to go to the schools around the area and talk about the upcoming fair and what to expect when the exciting weekend rolled around. The fair had recently moved its weekend from being the first in October to the last in September. Talking to the kids was overwhelmingly exciting. You never know what to expect when entering each classroom, every age group has a different opinion of the fair and a different level of excitement. Each group was quite excited about the zucchini car races and the horse show, which in the end turned out to both be successes, which is awesome. After the schools, the fair weekend was just around the corner. Volunteers, community members, fair board members as well as the agricultural society were all getting ready setting up, baking, and making sure everything was to run smoothly on opening night. Set up for the fair begins a week in advance with the stage, and the following week is filled with hard work and dedication making sure everything is set up and ready to go. I was able to be there and help out behind the scenes setting up and lending a hand where it was needed. It is incredible to experience the newer and older community members coming together to make the fair weekend happen as best it can. On the fair weekend, as ambassador I was able to to visit all the events and exhibits that were on display. I talked to community members, vendors, and many other individuals learning more about the community than I could have ever imagined.
District 8 Annual Meeting Near the end of October I attended the District 8 Annual Meeting this is where I was able to meet the other ambassadors for district 8 and start getting to know them. At the meeting we were provided a lovely supper and got to look at the quilts from different fairs around the area which were absolutely gorgeous masterpieces. During everything going on we had introductions of who everyone was and whereabouts they were from as well as the fair they represent. It was also amazing to experience the past ambassador Victoria Nicholson awarded the very first District 8 youth award. After the supper, all the ambassadors gathered and we introduced ourselves to each other. We talked about the upcoming events, and what the year ahead would hold for us. All the ambassadors are incredible and I am truly lucky to have met them and become friends.
OAAS Convention 2019 In February, I had the honour of attending the 2019 OAAS (Ontario Association of Agricultural Societies) Convention alongside the 80 other ambassadors representing agricultural societies and fairs across Ontario. This year it was held a new location which was at the Sheraton Parkway Toronto North Hotel & Suites and the Best Western Parkway Toronto North . The weekend started out with a bunch of icebreaker games, and we then moved into multiple sessions learning about social media, marketing, food tourism, and learning from Ambassador of the Fairs Vanessa Riddell. We were also able to participate in a scavenger hunt allowing us to chat and learn about different events that could possibly be brought back to our fairs. The weekend was filled with many exciting events we were able to meet one of the Peter Farm Bros, which was an amazing thing to experience. There was many individual and vendors to learn from. It was definitely a memorable experience as ambassador.
District 8 Workshop and Competition District 8 workshop was a phenomenal way to work on public speaking, impromptu questions, and your overall confidence as an ambassador and individual. This was an all day event where all the ambassadors from district 8 got together as well as other ambassador from different districts were able to join together to practice for the upcoming competitions. Throughout the day Joleen Otten the District 8 Ambassador for 2018 and runner up at CNE spoke, as well as, the CNE Ambassador of the fairs Vanessa Riddell from Milverton. They both spoke about there time as ambassadors, the positives, the negatives, what worried them and the challenges they overcame. It was an honour to meet them and have them speak to us and assure that no matter the mistakes and worries you may have you can accomplish anything as an ambassador and an individual. The District 8 competition was a few weeks after the workshop. On competition day all District 8 ambassadors met in Zurich in the morning and headed out for a tour of an Apple Orchard that also by surprise made hard cider! There was lots of laughs and good conversations during this outing with the other ambassadors. Later on we made pies and we MADE pies from scratch all we had was the tin foil plate. We made apple, cherry, pumpkin and a mixed fruit pie that I believe was mainly elderberries. While the pies were being made we did practice interviews and later on while they were in the oven we met the judges in our actual interviews . After the interviews everyone gathered for supper and then the family, friends and community members started to arrive. We did our impromptus and speeches and after while the judges were deciding the ambassador for 2019 we auctioned off the pies with one of the pies going for $60! Congratulations to Lydia Zehr of Stratford for being name the District 8 Ambassador of 2019 it is well deserved and I know you will do great things, congrats! Also congrats to Kerry Parker of Clinton for being the District 8 Ambassador Runner Up, well done so proud! I am incredibly honoured and proud of how everyone competed this year everyone did an astounding job! Thank you for voting me for the friendship award I am incredibly honoured, each and every ambassador deserves this.
Now on to prepare for CNE! Incredibly excited to travel to the CNE with the ambassadors of District 8 in mid August!
2017/2018 FALL FAIR AMBASSADOR - VICTORIA NICHOLSON
Ambassador's Message Quite a few events have happened since the start of my journey as the Howick-Turnberry fall fair ambassador began. Shortly before the weekend of the fair I was able to go talk to students at Maitland River and Howick Central about the fair. I explained to them that it was going to be a fun weekend with many exciting activities to do such as paintball target shooting, four wheeler pulling and lots of blow up castle events. The weekend of the fair was a very exciting one, with many events and activities such as the barnyard races, Howick idol, pig races, bouncy castles, alpaca walking, tractor rides and many others. As the weekend flew by I thought about how great our community is, seeing new faces or talking to those who had just stumbled across the fair because they were visiting for Thanksgiving gave me great joy. Our community came together to create this fantastic weekend that entertained a variety of age groups was a great accomplishment. Though the fair has now passed, my duties are far from over. Handing out prize money to the public schools was great fun as well. Through school entries or crafts that were made at home and entered these children worked hard and participated in a fantastic way for the fair. I strongly encourage parents to help their child(ren) in talking about and creating crafts to be entered into the fair. The excitement of winning or even placing is well worth the time it takes to create these entries. As the children at the schools came up to collect their prize the excitement and joy in their eyes were evident.
2016/2017 FALL FAIR AMBASSADOR - ALICIA DOUGLAS
Ambassador's Message As a little girl I always dreamed of running for the Howick-Turnberry fall fair ambassador and when I was old enough, I decided to follow that dream. The start of my journey as ambassador began with the opportunity to visit both Howick Central and Maitland River Elementary School. I got to inform the students about our fall fair and what type of events would take place over the three days. As I walked the halls of the public schools, I remembered how excited I got as a kid to have the fall fair ambassador come and talk to the class about our annual fair. With that I wanted to make each of the students just as excited as I was about coming to the fair. They all had lots of questions for me and I answered them all to the best of my ability. After these visits the fair approached quickly. It was a great weekend full of fun memories. Wings on the Friday night were a success and it was great to see so many members of the community out at our local fair. A few of my favourite moments from the weekend were the human four-wheeler pull, handing out the ribbons at the pet show, the tractor pull and seeing all of the animals. I had never been so exhausted after a weekend spent at the fair, but it was definitely worth it!
After the fair was over I got to return to the public schools to hand out the prize money! The look on the kids faces when they were awarded money was priceless. This was always one of my favourite parts while I was in public school. Later on, I was able to participate in the Wroxeter Christmas Parade. It was very nice to see so many people that I recognized within the crowds. Since the new year has begun I’m lucky enough to participate in our very own Catch the Ace Lottery. This draw happens every Saturday night at the Wroxter Hall, the doors are open at 7:00pm and the draw takes place at 10:00pm. Tickets are only $5.00 each and I encourage you all to come out and partake in it. We are putting Howick-Turnberry on the map! The Convention is fast approaching and I’m really looking forward to my few days spent at the Royal York Hotel.
2015/2016 FALL FAIR AMBASSADOR - BRANDON PENKAUSKAS
Ambassador’s Message Time goes, you say? Ah, no! alas, time stays, we go. -Henry Austin Dobson It is once again the time of year, where our wonderful community gathers to celebrate all of the wonderful agricultural and educational accomplishments of the year; and along with these celebrations a new ambassador of the fair will be crowned, and a new, and amazing jour-ney will be upon them. My journey into the ambassador program began in mid July of 2015, as I was asked to compete by our former ambassador, Jessica Walther. Upon being asked I was very skeptical as the ambassador program is a very female dominant program. How-ever by the end of August 2015 I had decided I would give it a shot, what was the worst that could happen? I have to say it was one of the best decisions of my life. Throughout my reign as the Howick-Turnberry Ambassador of the fair I have both met, and befriended an enormous amount of truly wonderful men and women. Whether it be the other 93 ambassadors from all around Ontario or the people I meet at all the events I have attended as our fairs ambassador, everyone has been su-per nice and supportive of their communities and fairs! Before the fair even began I found myself quickly thrown into action as the ambassador of the fair, with visits to the public schools in Howick and Wingham to promote the fall fair to the students. In the few days leading up to the event, I again found myself, along with our amazing fair board setting up the arena and making sure the fair would go off without a hitch! During my reign I had the opportunity to attend the Howick-Turnberry fall fair for all three days, during these three days I saw all the hard work and hours of labour that our fair board put in to make our fair what it. I was able to attend many different events at the fall fair that I wouldn’t have normally seen. Along with the other five ladies I competed against, we were invited to hand out the ribbons and prizes for our pet show, attend the exotic animal shows and put on “cookie walks” for the young kids. The Sunday of the fair I was asked to M.C. our lawn-tractor pull. My year continued as the fair board's new president and I jour-neyed off to the metropolis we call Toronto for the 2016 O.A.A.S. (Ontario Association of Agricultural Societies) conven-tion that is hosted at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel each year. During this event I met 88 other ambassadors from all around Ontario. Of all 89 of us there were only 4 male ambassadors, including our ambassador of the C.N.E. (Canadian National Ex-hibition), Matt Garwood. As well as meeting the other ambas-sadors we were given some preparation for the C.N.E. in Au-gust where we will compete for the title of Ambassador of the C.N.E. I hope that the future ambassadors of the Howick-Turnberry Fall Fair will enjoy this opportunity as much as I have, as well, I hope to see everyone at this year’s fair while I accompany the 2016/2017 ambassador. I am confident that in the future our fair will continue to bring everyone together as a strong com-munity and be an amazing and fun filled weekend for every-one! Sincerely, Brandon Penkauskas 2015-2016 Howick-Turnberry Ambassador of the Fair
OAAS CONVENTION: I must say that the convention was an amazing experience for me. It was such a pleasure to meet so many young men and women who are entwined within their communities and agricultural societies. With so many Ambassadors in attendance I do not believe I was able to meet everyone but I made strong bonds with the ladies and gentlemen that I was lucky enough to meet. It was delightful to see that the Agricultural Societies in and around the GTA (District 5) have as strong an agricultural community as those which are farther north or more southern.
As part of the Ambassador convention I was able to attend many seminars; ranging from, “How to Present Ourselves in Our Communities and Others We Are In”, to “How to be Successful in Whatever We do”. On Friday we had the honour of listening to two seminars given by two different CNE Ambassadors. The first was our current CNE Ambassador, Matt Garwood, and the second was the 2007 CNE Ambassador Brittany Graul. You may remember Brittany as one our judges for our competition held this past September. Matt gave us all the rundown of what we should expect for the competition at the CNE in August, and some tips we should use! Brittany gave us some helpful hints and tips of things the judges look for when they interview us. This will also be very helpful be it for the fair competition or for future job endeavours. The final seminar which occurred on Saturday was conducted by a gentleman named Neil Johnson. Mr. Johnson is the Sr. VP of Creative Strategy at High Road communications. This company does most of the advertising for some large corporations, such as Nike, The Weather Network and Universal Studios. Mr. Johnson’s seminar was conducted a little different from the other two that I previously mentioned. He talked to us about how to market ourselves and how we can be successful in anything we do. We learnt that in order to achieve both we need to “Work Our A$$ Off!”
As well as the seminars, all of the Ambassadors participated in many different games to break the ice between the 90 of us in attendance. These games allowed us to get to know one another on a better level. I hope to bring some of these activities to our future competitions here in Howick so that future contestants can get to know one another better during the competition!
Lastly, I would like to thank the Howick Agricultural Society for allowing me to attend and represent our wonderful community at this wonderful event put on by the OAAS.
Thank-you again,
Brandon Penkauskas 2015 - 2016 Howick-Turnberry Ambassador of the Fair
2014/2015 FALL FAIR AMBASSADOR - JESS WALTHER Everyone says “time flies when you’re having fun”, well that is a perfect way to sum up my year as the 2014/2015 Howick Turnberry Fall Fair Ambassador. My year was off to a great start when I went to the public schools to talk about the fair. Everyone had so many questions and they were all so excited and couldn’t wait for the weekend! I then got to attend the fair all 3 days and despite the rain, it was fantastic! I got all the candy apples and french fries I could eat, and I enjoyed the whole weekend, especially the pet show, the cake decorating contest, and the pork auction. I loved being such a big part of the fair. As a kid I always attended every year and to be the ambassador this year was a great addition to my memories of the fair that I will talk about in the near and far future. My year continued when I went to the OAAS convention at the Royal York Hotel where I had the pleasure of meeting over 90 other ambassadors! We got to know each other a bit better at the icebreaker party and during the 3 days we were there I learned so much about the other agricultural fairs and agriculture in general. A few months later along came the district 8 competition where we played team building games all day and ended the night saying our speeches and the new district 8 ambassador was crowned. As my journey as fair ambassador continued I was asked by the Women’s Institute (my sponsor for the competition), to write an essay to apply for a scholarship! what an exciting moment when I got it. In late June I was headed to Manitoba/ North Dakota to go to the Peace Garden… I couldn’t have had a better time that week. I got to meet girls from different provinces which included Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, and Quebec. I am looking forward to attending the other fairs in district 8 in the months ahead as well as the cruise night, the farmers market, and other community events.I have many more fun things to do before my year is over, and I will look back on this experience with a smile and some great memories! I hope to see everyone at this year’s fair while I accompany the 2015/2016 ambassador. I am confident that in the years to come our fair will continue to bring everyone together as a community and be a fun filled weekend for all ages. Sincerely, Jess Walther
2014/2015 Fall Fair Ambassador Message -Jessica Walther
My year as the Howick Turnberry Fall Fair Ambassador was off to a great start when I had the opportunity to go to Howick Central Public School as well as the Maitland Public School to educate the students that were present about the fall fair and the events that would take place during the 3 days. I was accompanied by David during the day and I’d like to take the time to thank him for all the support not only at the public schools but for the mentoring and advice he has provided so far during my time as ambassador. While at the fair I got to do many things including handing out ribbons to all the children who showed their animals in the pet show as well as going on rides with the other contestants from the night of the ambassador competition. I had a great time and I’m so proud of our community and ag society for all the volunteer work and effort put into making the fall fair possible. It was a huge success!
My adventures as the ambassador continued when I got to participate in the Wroxiter Christmas parade. I enjoyed seeing all the familiar faces while everyone admired the final outcome of all effort from the people involved. Not only have I enjoyed my time so far as fair ambassador, I have also made lasting friendships and furthered my knowledge about agriculture and our district. (fairs are great in district 8)! While I know we must compete for the title of district 8 ambassador, I think of us as a team and together we can accomplish so much.
Which brings me to my next event, THE CONVENTION! I had a blast at the icebreaker party where we played games and exchanged fair pins and just overall got to know each other. 4 boys and 89 girls attended the convention and now I have 92 more friends! I came back from the convention with so much more information than I ever thought I would and I’m so excited to be able to share them with the fair board. I attended various workshops about interviewing skills, public speaking, and leadership skills. I’m looking forward to the rest of my year and I encourage anyone who has considered joining the ag society or competing to become a fair ambassador to jump at the opportunity because you will get the experience of your life in doing so, and you only live once so make it count! J
Please feel free to contact me through email: [email protected] as well as through facebook: Jess Walther instagram: jesswaltherr.d8 and cell: (519) 335-6548
CONGRATULATIONS to ALI, our Ambassador on winning the District 8 Ambassador competition in Stratford May 3rd. We are all so very proud of you Alison! A big Thank You goes out to Tammy Scherpenzeel for all her help with the competitions. :) Now onto the CNE!
Sarah & Ali
2013/2014 Fall Fair Ambassador Message -Alison Underwood
Hi! My name is Alison Underwood and I am the 2013/2014 Howick-Turnberry Fall Fair Ambassador. Representing the Howick-Turnberry Fall Fair & Agricultural Society has been a huge privilege. I have been given many opportunities (and many more to come) that I would have never been able to receive if it weren't for this amazing ambassador experience.
Attending the Howick-Turnberry Fall Fair as a child was one of the most exciting things in my childhood, and now at the age of 17, it still is. As an ambassador of this fair, I have never been more proud to represent it and also to be able to participate in it. The pork auction, the human bus pull, the pet show, the horse show, and the pig races were just a few of the amazing events that I was able to help out with and participate in.
The main highlight of my ambassador experience so far, has been the OAAS (Ontario Association of Agricultural Societies) convention, held at the Royal York in Toronto. I was fortunate enough to meet with so many ambassadors and learn about their ambassador experience and fall fairs. I was also able to attend various workshops on public speaking, interviewing and leadership skills. The performances during the evening were absolutely fantastic! The performances ranged from country to swing bands, jugglers, and magicians!
As my ambassador experience will continue for a few short months to come, I am looking forward to the other opportunities I will be fortunate enough to get. As an ambassador not only are you giving these numerous opportunities, but you are being benefited in your public speaking, interviewing, and leadership skills. If you are wondering about becoming an ambassador of your local fair, do not hesitate. If you have any questions about becoming an ambassador or what it is like being an ambassador, please email me at: [email protected]
2012/2013 Fair Ambassador Message Claudia deJong
My ambassador year started off to a great start with the annual Howick-Turnberry Fall Fair!
Their was enthusiasm in the air as pig racing was introduced, which turned out to be a great success. I was also able to be featured in one of Claude Haggerty’s Illusionist Shows. While at the fair, my fellow ambassador contestants and I were even able to participate in the Human Truck Pull on Saturday.
Those were just a few of the featured events at the Howick-Turnberry Fall Fair the weekend of October 5, 6, 7, 2012.