Applications accepted for this year's Lambton IPM 91 scholarships

The 2019 Lambton International Plowing Match 91 Trust Fund scholarship recipients named that year at the Brigden Fair are shown in this file photo along with fund trustees. From left, the late Bill Bilton, fund trustee, recipient Jessica Kennedy, recipient Clayton Shaw and trustee Bryan Boyle. Scholarship recipient Megan McGrail wasn't able to attend. (File photo/The Observer)

A Lambton County scholarship created with local proceeds from the 1991 International Plowing Match is helping keep the spirit of community involvement alive and well.

While the scholarship created 34 years ago by local organizers of the farm event held near Petrolia takes into account marks and financial need, volunteering and community involvement are half of the scoring criteria trustees use to select three annual recipients of the $2,000 awards.

“The ideal applicant is very involved in their community,” said Bryan Boyle, the sole remaining original trustee for the scholarship fund that began operating a year after the 1991 plowing match was held in Enniskillen Township.

“Historically, they’ve also been strong academically, almost without exception . . . but high marks will not do it on its own,” he said.

Applicants able to demonstrate a variety of community involvement, volunteering and charity work tend to carry the day, Boyle said.

Sept. 15 is the deadline to apply for the scholarship this year. Information is available by contacting Boyle by email at bryan@bryanboyle.ca.

“Typically, we’d have 10 good ones to pick from,” he said.

The scholarships are available for students from Lambton County entering their second year of college, university or other post-secondary training.

About $172,000 has been awarded to 119 recipients since the scholarships began in 1992.

“Any time you can keep something going like that, it says something good,” Boyle said.

Early recipients of the scholarship are now entering middle age and children of past recipients are old enough to apply, he said.

“There were identified as leading members of their community then and they’ve sure lived up to it,” Boyle said about past recipients.

They include farmers, engineers, veterinarians, doctors, scientists, and other occupations, Boyle said.

“We never limited it to agriculture only,” he said.

Individual scholarships began at $1,000 but several years ago the fund’s trustees increased the amount to $2,000.

Currently, the fund has four trustees who include Barbara McNeil, daughter of Leonard McNeil, who was chairperson of the local plowing match committee in 1991.

Boyle said he and Leonard McNeil promoted the idea of establishing a scholarship with about $125,000 in profit from the 1991 event that came to the local volunteers.

That was instead of the tradition of awarding honorariums to some volunteers and donating the rest to charity, Boyles said.

“Our thought was what better way to keep a lasting legacy that to give it each year to deserving young people,” he said.

Three decades later, the scholarship fund has about $100,000 invested to generate income for the annual awards.

“We have no signs of running out of money, at this rate,” Boyle said. “We hope it will continue on.”

The decision made following the 1991 match to create the scholarship fund meant its local committee members “were truly volunteers,” although some of the profits were used for a large dinner and celebration for several hundred local residents involved in hosting the event, he said.

This year’s scholarship recipients are expected to be announced in October at the Brigden Fair.

~Paul Morden~ Sarnia Observer