







Emma Dinn, BC Agriculture Fairs, Exhibitions and Events 2023 scholarship winner
If you spent time around the agriculture industry in Chilliwack, you may have met this year's scholarship winner Emma Dinn milking cows or feeding calves at Dinn Farms or working the till at the Garden House. A student at Agassiz Elementary and Secondary School, she is a member of the Agassiz Rainbow 4-H club where she learned about the scholarship opportunity. “Spending time at fairs in the summer has created some of my favourite summer memories and so I figured that this application presented an awesome opportunity”.
This year's theme, Cannabis and BC’s Agriculture Industry, drew dozens of quality responses. BC Fairs president Tom Harter was very impressed with both the quantity and quality of the entries, “I have had the privilege to be involved with our scholarship program for many year's and am always impressed with the response. This year's submissions were outstanding, and I want to take the opportunity to thank everyone who submitted”.
In fact, the responses were so well researched and written that the scholarship committee had a challenge on their hands. The graded program involves several board members of BC Fairs reading and grading each submission in a number of categories. While all submissions were well regarded, two stood out and the points totals were less than ½ a point apart. This posed a dilemma for the committee until one of the members generously offered to make a donation towards a second place scholarship award and BC Fairs was able to contribute and match the donation.
Sharleen Arink, second place winner of the BC Agriculture Fairs, Exhibitions and Festivals 2023 Scholarship
This year's second place winner, Sharleen Arink from Chilliwack BC has always been committed to the land and animals through living on a hobby farm and being involved in 4-H. When asked about giving advice to other young people about being involved in 4-H to grow their passion and knowledge for agriculture, Sharleen said “Do it. You will find a second family with interests similar to yours. Give it one year and you will do it again”. She shared that she was surprised at the positive impact of Cannabis farming, “At first I didn’t know a lot about the bill and wrongly assumed there were no positives”. As she dug into her research she quickly realised there is a balance between positives and challenges to the industry.
Emma Dinn will be off shortly to the University of Toronto where she will study Arts and Science - Humanities. Sharleen Arink is attending University of the Fraser Valley to get a Bachelor of Science.
With the scholarship going towards youth who are or will be actively involved in agriculture Emma summarises why it's important, “The world's population relies on agriculture for food, and yet as the population grows, the amount of space being used for agriculture seems to be shrinking. In my opinion, this is largely due to a disconnect between the agricultural sector and the general public. If more youth were involved in agriculture in some capacity, I think that it would be more valued by society.”
ABOUT
To date BC Fairs has awarded over $50,000 in scholarships to youth from across the province. Each year a committee is assigned the task to create a theme and after the scholarship is promoted through a number of channels, grade each submission. BC Fairs was originally established by the Ministry of Agriculture in 1910 to promote the industry at events across British Columbia. Today the Association represents 47 not-for-
profit community events and continues to stay true to the original mandate by providing leadership and guidance around the agricultural aspects of each while promoting them around the world.
To learn more and find out how you can support the future of agriculture fairs in your community, contact executive director Janine Saw at 604-747-9000, go to our website at bcfairs.ca or download our mobile app from the Google Play or Apple App store.
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BC Association of Agricultural Fairs and Exhibitions (BC Fairs).
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© Copyright 2021 BC Association of Agricultural Fairs and Exhibitions (BC Fairs). All Right Reserved.