Norma Tolhurst, Quebec 4-H
The 38th edition of the Quebec 4-H Provincial Rally, hosted by the clubs of the Chateauguay Valley, was held this year on home soil at the Ormstown Fairgrounds from July 17-20th. In honour of the 100 anniversary of the Ormstown fair held last month, the clubs of the Chateauguay Valley chose “country fairs” as this year’s theme. 

Sunday night at about 6:30PM, a mangled motorcycle was found on Highway 202 near Rang des Lemieux in Franklin. For an unknown reason, the driver lost control of the motorcycle, swerved and crashed inflicting serious injuries on both the passenger and driver.  Both victims, who live in Montérégie, were immediately taken to the hospital where the passenger, 31, succumbed to the injuries, while the driver’s, 44, condition stabilized. SQ investigators are looking into the unknown reason why the motorcycle lost control.

Story credit to: TVA Nouvelles

Alexandra Markes
It was the fair of all fairs. Celebrating their 100th Anniversary, Expo Ormstown displayed their very best  on June 12th to 15th making it an even bigger success than last year’s fair. As per typical fair weekend weather, the rain came down in buckets on Thursday and Friday, soaking the fair grounds and all who attended. But it did not drain numbers. Bringing in a proud number of almost 15,000 people attending throughout the course of the weekend, they came in droves (literally, being shuttled from the CVR parking lot) for the special celebratory events.


Watch videos of the 100 Bagpipers, the Demolition Derby and the Hercules Fly By below.

Caitlin MacDougall
On April 12th, 2014, over 300 people attend the 36th annual 4-H square dance competition hosted by the Ormstown 4-H Club at the Rec Centre. The competition was one of the largest editions ever held, with 7 junior teams and 6 senior teams participating from across Quebec and Eastern Ontario. Including mascots there were about 110 dancers present. Despite the conflict with Talentfest there was a good crowd to cheer on the dancers, and the canteen had to be restocked before the winners were announced! 

On April 12, the municipality of Saint-Urbain-Premier honoured their volunteers at a recogniltion gala with more than 140 citizens present. Although the municipality only has some 1,200 residents, they are buslting with activity, primarily because of the 143 dedicated volunteers. 

The mayor, Francine Daigle, pointed out that the social, community, recreational, spiritual and cultural life of the region flourishes thanks to them. 

Alyssa Fourneaux
Sawyerville 4-H hosted the 38th Annual Quebec 4-H Provincial Rally at the Cookshire Fairgrounds in the beautiful Eastern Townships, July 18-21. Quebec 4-H’s biggest event of the year, Rally is similar to a mini fair. Over 100 4-H’ers spent the weekend showing off their animals, handicrafts, gardening projects and public speaking abilities. There were also fun classes like the Farmers’ Olympics and costume classes. Each club chose a decade to represent in the costume class and the barn decorating competition. This year the theme of Rally was “Celebrating our Roots: 100 years of 4-H in Canada”, in honour of the centennial anniversary of 4-H in Canada.

Christina Franc
45 young members of the community were invited to an awards gala celebrating all their hard work and volunteering efforts on Thursday evening.