Canadian National makes donation toward Ag Venture

The Waupaca County Fair received a $5,000 grant from Canadian National (CN).

The grant will help support the fair’s mission of providing educational exhibits about agriculture and household sciences.

When applying for the online grant, Fair Board Vice President Jeremy Schroeder focused on education and diversity.

The grant will be used to enhance the Ag Venture area, first introduced at the 2015 fair.

This area featured the Commodity Carnival from UW-Extension in Madison that educated fairgoers on all aspects of raising a hog from start to finish with the end goal of breaking even to making a profit. Youth and their families could see exactly what went into just one aspect of production agriculture.

The fair board has plans to grow the Ag Venture Area in 2016 to be more interactive with educational exhibits for all ages.

“Receiving this grant from CN not only helps with the educational programming for the 2015 fair but will help in planning more diverse educational exhibits for the 2016 fair,” Schroeder said. “The Waupaca County Fair Board members extend their appreciation to CN for awarding the $5,000 to the fair and look forward to other opportunities to work with CN in the future.

Kevin Soucie, CN’s director of government affairs, personally presented the $5,000 grant to the Waupaca County Fair Board. He commented that the fair is doing many great things that bring families and fun together while tying in education.

Soucie encouraged the fair to apply for another CN grant in 2016 to support further programs and activities within the fair. He also discussed potential exhibits that CN may be able to contribute that focus on railroad safety.