Thresher Reunion 2024: McDonalds lead a talented team
BY SCOTT STEPHENSON
They may be the president and the vice-president of the Huron Pioneer Thresher and Hobby Association (HPTHA), but Cole and Laura McDonald can hardly remember last year’s event. For them, it was just one big blur. As far as he can recall, Cole thinks the weekend was a big success. “It went down really nice, without a hitch,” he remarked.
Even though the Thresher Reunion has a plethora of interesting music, food and activities to check out, the feature attraction is always the vast variety of unusual antique machines that show up to show off. Every year, the Blyth Campground is packed full of enormous steam engines, classic cars, rare combines, and unusual tractors aplenty, all waiting for their moment to be admired. Cole is especially excited to show off his unusual new plow this year. “It’s an International - a two-furrow disk plow,” he explained. “Which is very strange in this part of the world. We have fairly heavy clay land, and they’re more suited for sandy soil... this one’s from West Virginia, and it’s made it to Lucknow now.” This machine apparently has a hard time with rocky soil, so the fields of Huron County might prove to be a bit of a challenge for it.
Putting together an event of this magnitude can feel overwhelming at times, but both Cole and Laura are well aware of how lucky they are to have such a strong team of committee heads who somehow make the whole thing happen every year. After more than six decades in operation, the Thresher Reunion has reached a point where it runs like a well-oiled machine. Each sub-committee manages itself effectively, and requires almost no oversight. Laura pointed out that there are so many things that happen over the course of the weekend that she’s never had to think about. “If anyone asked me who puts out all the garbage cans, I don’t know,” she said. “They’re just there.” Cole doesn’t know either, but he knows that somebody’s on it. “There’s a guy that’s on a committee, and he’s in charge of making sure that happens. And he has yet to fail us. If it works, we don’t question it,” he explained.
For example, Entertainment Co-ordinator Gladys Van Egmond is a seasoned professional who co-ordinates most of the weekend’s entertainment. With the help of fellow piano player Annie Pritchard, Van Egmond books bands, oversees the fiddle and step dance competitions, and programs each day’s song and dance schedule. “Honestly, we just give her free rein, and ask what she needs to make sure she can continue on,” Cole said. “We know that she does so much, but most of us really don’t get into the details. We don’t know who she’s calling, or why or when or how - it’s just ‘here’s the tools you need, and let us know if you need anything else.’ She books emcees, bands, organizes... I think she judges one of the competitions? And she doesn’t need much help, other than Annie, and they work on their own, and they’re good at it. Shed 3 is pretty much full on Sunday morning [for the church service], Annie puts that together, and it’s the same thing as Gladys. As long as nothing’s going wrong, we’re good. If we hear something, that’s probably not a good thing - she’s very independent as well. They’ve got it figured out down to a science. We just try to stay out of their way!”
Things may be running like clockwork as they are, but Cole and Laura are also implementing a few changes that they think will ensure a bright future for the reunion. This year, Cole wants to focus on utilizing the Blyth Campground space more effectively. “There’s a lot of stuff going on, but there’s still an opportunity to get more stuff in here,” he pointed out. “I’d love to see some military stuff. There’s all kinds of military collectors and enthusiasts around here. Just get them in the gate and have some different content to the show again. We don’t want to take anything away, we’re just going to shuffle things around a little bit... we need to just bring in more stuff. Our drive is historical things, and some of this stuff is history now... there’s a guy at my work that’s a year younger than me and he doesn’t know what an 8-track is.”
They’ve already added a popular tractor pull, updated the kids’ activities, and even incorporated the Blyth Festival’s outdoor Harvest Stage into the mix. One of their most successful innovations to date was a semi-impromptu Saturday night concert featuring Joe Gahan and The Lucky Charms that will now happen for the third straight year at this reunion.
Laura wants to start using a wider variety of communication styles to get the word out about the Reunion. “We’re trying to get more things down on paper, and make better use of our website and social media, because it’s basically free,” she said.
One thing they’ll never try to change is the daily bean pot. “It’s a crowd favourite every year, I know that,” Cole stated. “There was one year that it didn’t go ahead, and there was a lot of disappointment... you can’t have these kinds of events without a good food supply.”