The Ogema Agricultural Society will be marking their 100th year as an organization, as they host their annual summer fair on Saturday, July 5, followed by the Deep South Museum Day on Sunday, July 6.
The Ogema Agricultural Society will be marking their 100th year as an organization, as they host their annual summer fair on Saturday, July 5, followed by the Deep South Museum Day on Sunday, July 6.
The fair day will begin with a pancake breakfast from 7 to 9 a.m., and then the parade is at 10 a.m., and there are a wide variety of activities to interest people of every age.
The breakfast will be held in the Red Coat Road and Rail Park by the train station. To enter the parade, call Ella Frank.
The official ceremonies for the centennial fair will take place at 11:30 a.m. on the main stage in the rink complex.
The activities include barrel-racing, a kids rodeo and baseball games (slowpitch and fastball), plus features to commemorate the century mark, such as five-cent ice cream cones.
There will also be live children's entertainment, live bands and entertainers on the main strage, displays and demonstrations, old-time games and food, new fair book categories, a horse pull, a petting zoo, cake-cutting, fireworks, and the unveiling of a commemorative mural, which will take place on Main Street immediately after the parade.
As part of the celebrations, such as the bike and pet shows, the Ag Society is looking for photos from past years, and are asking for this year's entrants to decorate their bike and-or dress up their pet, using the centennial of the fair as the theme. For this year, all ages of children and adults are invited to enter a bike or a pet. If anyone has photos of past bike or pet shows, send them to Shelley Hartley or Donna Hartley.
A concession will be located in the grandstand behind the ball diamond, and will be open from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The kids rodeo will go from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., followed by the horse pull at 2, and the SBRA barrel-racing event from 4 to 6 p.m., and again on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. For more information on these, contact Tanya Leonard.
The Pangman EMS will do a presentation on the main stage in the rink complex from 12:30 to 1 p.m.; there will be a Filipino presentation at 2:30, and then a pie walk and the RY Ramblers will be on the stage at 3:50 p.m.
The day will also include a special feature, as the Southern Prairie Railway will run an Ogema Ag Society Centennial Commemorative Train Run, starting at 4 p.m., and will last between one and three-quarters to two hours, starting from Ogema and running to Horizon.
The train will then return to Ogema in time for the banquet supper, which is slated to be held from 5 to 7:30 in the new Community Heritage Hall. Tickets were sold in advance for this meal.
A cabaret will be held in the evening in the skating rink, and will feature a live band, Magnum, starting at 9.
To wrap up the centennial celebrations, there will be fireworks at 10:30 p.m.
The Ogema Agricultural society was chartered on Jan. 8, 1914, with T.E. Gamble as president, and C.P. Ennals as the secretary. Clarence Heron was the first farmer to appear at the meeting.
Fairs in the early days went for two days, and horses were the main attraction, including a horse sale, heavy horse competitions and light horse competitions, with horse races, bringing horses from as far away as Brandon, Man.
Exhibitors were popular as well, with some fairs having as many as 1,600 exhibits.
In 1967, the Ag Society turned over their property to the regional park authority, as long as the grounds were available for their use for the 4-H regional shows and the summer fair.
