Thank you to the Harvest Moon Society!

After some time of rest and processing our trip, we want to share a bit about our experience with you folks who supported this initiative, who thought of us, encouraged us, lent us your gear and donated to make this dream happen. We also want to thank all of our donors and sponsors. This particular thank you goes out to the Harvest Moon Society.

The Farmhands on Bikes (FOB) tour was a whirlwind of an adventure which started on Friday morning with a bunch of people, many of whom had never met before, piling into vehicles and driving out to Clearwater, Manitoba. We didn’t quite know the extent of what the weekend would hold for us and there were mutual feelings of excitement and nerves as we drove out of the city together.

Loading up the cars on Friday morning

We began in Clearwater at the the Harvest Moon Learning Centre. In the beginning stages of planning the FOB tour, the Harvest Moon Society connected us with farmers who were interested in hosting us. The Harvest Moon Society had a large part in making this tour come to life.  

Leanna in the beautiful kitchen of the Harvest Moon Learning Centre

The Harvest Moon Society is an inspiring organization that works at building healthy communities and strengthening the connections between urban and rural communities. They have a beautiful facility in Clearwater where we were generously hosted by their program coordinator, Lacey Lord. Check out Harvest Moon Society’s website to learn about what sorts of work they are involved in and consider supporting them! (http://harvestmoonsociety.org/)

We started our trip off by having a community potluck at the Harvest Moon Society Learning Centre. A number of community members from Clearwater came down to the Centre to eat supper with us and meet our group. It was great to meet folks from Clearwater, to learn about their lives and to share with them some things about ourselves. The food that we shared was delicious and featured lamb kabobs and chicken wings that one of the youth, Khalil, had brought to share. Khalil brought a bbq and meat and he and Ali made an incredible feast for us.

Ali and Khalil barbecued delicious chicken and lamb

One of the hopes of FOB was to work towards bridging the rural-urban divide that we see in our communities in Manitoba. By inviting youth who live in Winnipeg to cycle down country roads, meet farmers and rural folks, we hoped that connections would be built between people groups who otherwise would not connect. We are thankful that Harvest Moon Society enabled connections while providing us with a wonderful starting point for our adventure.

Sitting around the fire at the Harvest Moon Learning Centre

We are so thankful for the ways that the Harvest Moon Society supported, funded and participated in this initiative and for the work that they do to build healthy and resilient communities. The Farmhands on Bikes tour would not be possible without them!