Repairing for record breaking
- Details
- Published on Wednesday, May 20, 2015
By Sheila Runions
Banner Staff
Canadian Foodgrains Bank is a partnership of churches working together to fight world hunger. Started as a pilot project in 1976 by Mennonite Central Committee to allow Canadian farmers to share their harvests, it was reorganized in 1983, opened to other church agencies and re-established as Canadian Foodgrains Bank (CFGB). The charity was formed in time to make a significant contribution to fighting the Ethiopia famine in 1984; today CFGB works with 40 countries and has 15 church agencies representing 30 denominations with more than 17,000 congregations. CFGB is supported by the Canadian government in that donations received by CFGB are matched by government dollars on a 4:1 ratio, thus making all donations quite significant.
Manitoba Agricultural Museum and Manitoba/Northwest Ontario CFGB are currently planning a major threshing machine event for 2016 and to prepare for that, repair work was necessary.
“The 2016 Threshing World Record committee is a completely separate committee but the museum is running it under its banner. I’m the CFGB rep and we’re working to make it happen,” says regional co-ordinator Harold Penner. “They asked us if we’d like to be the charity they support in their efforts to break the world record so we’re working together. In order to break the world record, the museum needs a minimum of 65 operating threshing machines at the event. Many of the museum’s machines need some work to be in tip-top shape for this exciting event!”
Thus, a work bee was organized on May long weekend and Barry Bromley of Riverdale Municipality was one of the volunteers who travelled to Austin to work on the machines.
“We had a number of people working this past weekend and have a really good start on preparing machines for next year’s event. Helmut Neufeld has taken charge of preparing machines that are on site and in good enough condition to be reparable. We’re still looking for volunteers who are willing to spend a day, or a couple of days, perhaps a weekend, to help work on machines.”
Austin is famous for it’s threshermen’s reunion; this year’s 61st annual event will be July 23-26. Next year’s reunion will be the attempt to break the record but in addition to machine repairs, there are other supplies the committee needs for the Harvesting Hope world record. Harold encourages people to “Consider volunteering to help with the event, either preparing for it or participating in it, or both! If you know of anyone with a good working threshing machine or a binder please give me a name and contact information. We are hoping to gather as many three-prong forks as possible and are willing to borrow or buy at a reasonable price. We need sheaf racks or four-wheel wagons on which we can build racks.”
Yes, threshing machines are required for Harvesting Hope; the museum has approximately one-third of their goal of 65. Museum representative Elliott Sims admits the committee is “looking for private indivudals with machines. This is really about getting the entire agricultural community together in Manitoba to make this event happen. It’s going to be a great gathering because it’s about bringing together all those people who appreciate and want to celebrate our agricultural heritage, by keeping those traditions, machines and skills alive, while at the same time raising some well-deserved funding for people overseas who are less fortunate than us. The museum has 20-25 threshing machines and there are a number of machines coming from across Western Canada, Edmonton for example, and Fargo, ND and possibly even Minneapolis. We certainly need machines from people all over the Prairies, please contact us for information.”
If you have wagons, forks, binders or threshers, please contact Harold at 204-746-5135 (phone or text) or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
