Friday, March 29, 2024

Century Awards grows bigger

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The Century Farms and Station Awards event has become so successful it has outgrown its community management.
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As the awards committee geared up to receive its 13th year of applications from families with a long heritage of farming their land it was now being led by part-time national co-ordinator Melinda Foster.

The awards began in the Otago town of Lawrence in 2005 with the aim of capturing and preserving histories of pioneering families and their descendants.

Eligible families submitted narratives of their farm histories with copies of relevant photographs and documents that were then archived at the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington, ensuring all records were kept in perpetuity.

Until recently the highly successful awards programme had been solely managed by a small number of hardworking and dedicated volunteers from Lawrence.

But the initiative had grown to such a size to the committee had to employ Foster as its part-time national co-ordinator to keep up with the growth and maintain the momentum of interest, chairman Symon Howard said.

The introduction of a new Century Farmers membership club had also encouraged previous recipients to remain interested in the programme with the possibility of regional events in the future.

Howard said the committee and Lawrence community had worked hard to develop the annual awards into a high profile date on the farming events calendar.

“The committee is very proud to be able to drive this important national initiative out of Lawrence.

“It is a real privilege for the town to be able to roll out the red carpet each year to these well-deserving awardees and honour their significant achievement of 100 or more years in farming,” he said.

Families from throughout NZ who had owned and farmed their land since 1917 or earlier were eligible to apply for the special acknowledgment of their hard work and perseverance.

A formal dinner in Lawrence each May honoured the award recipients.

“It is a chance for families to meet each other and formally receive their distinctive bronze plaque and certificate to display on their property,” Howard said.

In its first 12 years more than 400 families had joined the circle of centenarians and sesquicentenarians.

Any families wanting to apply for this year needed to get their initial application in by November 30.

MORE: Further information including an application form can be found at www.centuryfarms.co.nz or by emailing info@centuryfarms.co.nz

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