Plowmen's Association to host event celebrating Klaver's win

BY DENNY SCOTT

The Huron County Plowmen’s Association will be holding a special open house at the Seaforth Branch of the Royal Canadian Legion on Dec. 11 to honour Maranda Klaver being crowned the Ontario Queen of the Furrow at the International Plowing Match (IPM) earlier this year.

Klaver beat out 18 other contestants at the IPM in Kemptville in September to be crowned.

Jeff McGavin of the association said that Klaver had joined an elite group of Queen competitors in Huron who had brought home the provincial crown. In total, there have been three before her.

The event follows tradition, McGavin said, as the group did the same when Melissa Veldman, (then Sparling), won the title in 2010.
“We want to celebrate her achievements,” he said.

The event will run from 2-4 p.m., McGavin said, with no official program.

“We’re going to have the awards she’s won and pictures of her for people to see,” he said. “Due to COVID-19, she had a three-year reign as the Huron County Queen of the Furrow, so there is a lot to go through.”

He went on to say that the Plowmen’s Association is very proud of the work Klaver has done, saying she is a great ambassador for Huron County and now Ontario.

In a previous interview with The Citizen, Klaver said winning was a surprising moment.
“It was pretty surreal, and that was what I said in my acceptance speech,” she said. “At one point, during my reign, I didn’t even know if I’d get to go to the IPM because of the COVID-19 pandemic, so to be standing there and crowned, I needed someone to come pinch me to make sure it was real.”

Klaver said she was happy with her speech, which focused on mental health in the agricultural community, and was also happy with her plowing, which she had practised leading up to the IPM. 

Last month, Klaver spoke to Huron County Council to let them know about her activities in the past year including being the Huron Queen of the Furrow and being crowned the Ontario Queen at the IPM.

She explained to council that she has been involved in the competition since she was 12 years old and remembered looking up to the Queen contestants, and that winning brought that experience full circle, making her the woman young girls would be looking up to.

She told council her first official event as the Ontario Queen was to take part in the Dufferin Farm Tour. By attending, she hoped to promote the 2023 International Plowing Match which will be held in Peel-Dufferin. 

Klaver has also attended a plowing match in Haldimand-Oneida after being crowned the Ontario Queen, and travelled to the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto last month.