Meadowview 4-H Club shares exchange with Ontario

Members of the Meadowview 4-H Club were part of an interesting learning experience recently, when they shared in an exchange with a club from Ontario.

The Albertan youths traveled to Ontario to spend 10 days with the 4-H club Ontario exchange group, which consisted of members from different Wellington County clubs. They arrived in Ontario June 30, with a long week of touring ahead of them.

Each of the 10 members were partnered with someone from the Ontario group, said exchange organizer Grace Huisman, mostly based on interest.

“That way they kind of have something in common,” she said. “I think they all matched up really well.”

Bailey Hofstra from Barrhead and Allison Wallace from Elora can agree the matching was a success.

“We were matched so perfectly,” said Hofstra. “I can see us talking for years.”

The group of 20 youths did everything from going to the St. Jacob’s Farmers Market and paintballing, to visiting Wasaga Beach and treetop trekking.

A day was set aside to see Toronto, which included a tour of the legislature, Kensington, University of Toronto, city hall, and Medieval Times.

The group had a whole day in Wellington County too, where they saw the University of Guelph, Tiger Paw Exotics, and Grand River Raceway in Elora.

“The second race was our race, so we got to take a picture with the winning horse,” said Huisman.

The Niagara area was also on the list, where the group had the opportunity to see Niagara Falls from the Maid of the Mist.

Hofstra said her time in Ontario was interesting, especially because of the long list of differences between each province.

“Even the houses look different, and there’s so many outdoor pools,” she said. “There wasn’t as much cattle as I expected though. They had smaller herds.”

A common shock among the young Albertans? Ontario’s bagged milk.

“The first time I saw it I was like, ‘What is that!’” laughed Hofstra. “I thought it was icing or something.”

The Ontario group arrived in Alberta for their own province exploration last week, where they spent the first two days of their trip with their host families on July 19-20.

Hofstra introduced Wallace to the ways of the West, taking her new friend horseback riding, fishing, cattle branding, and roping.

“Branding cattle was interesting, and we don’t have ropers at home,” said Wallace. “It’s also really cold compared to home. We were dealing with 40 degree weather.”

Last week was Alberta’s turn to shine. The groups went to Fort Assiniboine to see the museum and giant wagon wheel, hiked the sand hills, and went to Thunder Lake.

And what’s a trip to western Canada without mountains? An overnight stay in Jasper was much looked-forward to, where the group saw Athabasca Falls, the tramway, and the hot springs.

Other stops included Mayerthorpe’s Fallen Four, Barrhead RCMP detachment, and West Edmonton Mall.

Though the list of places to go and activities to do was a long one, Wallace said she most enjoyed learning about Alberta and having the opportunity to form new friendships.

“My favourite part is meeting the people, I’ll probably talk to them for a long time,” said Wallace. “Meeting new people from a different province is pretty cool.”