DRAYTON – The Drayton Kinsmen Club was founded in 1968.
When the organization started the Drayton Farm Show in 1981, the purpose was to provide an opportunity to connect local residents in the agriculture field and to raise funds for community projects and cystic fibrosis research.
Over the years the Kinsmen have streamlined the process of organizing one of the area’s annual main events.
According to first-time farm show chair Chad MacKay, the process starts in October with divvying up roles. MacKay said he has already enjoyed learning on the job.
“I thought it would be good to run an event like this,” he said.
Not being a farmer himself, MacKay said he has been a big fan of the event because so many of his friends and acquaintances in the area work in agriculture.
“You learn a lot as far as organizational stuff goes and you get involved with all of the local members of the community and business partners, so it’s been good,” he added.
The chairman started sending out invitations for this year’s event in January.
Passing on the information from one chairman to the next, with so many returning vendors, means most are expecting to be invited and plan on attending.
This year only 15 of the show’s 125 vendors are new to the event.
For new vendors that want to be in the show, limited space can sometimes be an issue.
“With the space sometimes it takes a year or two to get everyone into the show,” MacKay said.
The largest part of his role, he explained, is organizing how all of the vendors will fit in the arena and deciding who goes where.
“It is still a lot of work, but all of the vendors … have been doing it for years so they know what they are doing,” MacKay said.
“We just contact them, they come in and do the same thing they did last year basically.”
Booth and curtain set up in the PMD arena takes place the week prior to the event, allowing organizers and MacKay to get it right.
“Being that it’s been running for 38 years, a lot of the infrastructure is already in place so it gets set up fairly easily,” he said.
