Lorne and Shirley’s Ex-cellent adventure

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/06/2011 (5468 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Lorne Gregorash sat patiently inside the Information Booth at the Red River Ex Saturday afternoon and knew the answer to the one question everyone seemed to be asking: “Where are the ATM machines?… In the big white building behind us.”

“I think you should get a big sign,” suggested Gregorash’s wife Shirley, who was briefly keeping him company.

Lorne and Shirley Gregorash are veterans of the volunteer army that turn out every year to help make the Ex go — Lorne has been volunteering since 1981, Shirley since 1983.

“I can’t imagine a summer not volunteering here,” Lorne Gregorash said. “We love it, we love volunteering. It’s so much fun.”

“I would miss it so much if we didn’t come,” Shirely Gregorash added. “I love watching the kids and seeing how excited they get. You see them coming through the gates and they’re bouncing up and down, they’re just so excited.”

There are about 200 Ex volunteers working three hours shifts daily for the 10 days of the exhibition — handing out brochures, working with the various community groups which put on shows, and doing anything else that’s asked of them.

“The volunteers are absolutely critical,” Garth Rogerson, Ex CEO said. “We couldn’t put the fair on without them.”

The Ex volunteers are only a fraction of the total number of volunteers who come to the Ex every day:

— 800 volunteers with the health expo, GO4healthEXpo, organized by the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority;

— 200 volunteers are part of the Habitat for Humanity team building a house on the Ex grounds that will later be moved to a site on Archibald Street;

— countless more volunteers who work with the local community groups who put on shows daily.

Joanne Phillips is the Ex’s volunteer co-ordinator, a staff position overseeing the army of volunteers, who began at the Ex in 1972 as a volunteer before getting hired full-time four years later.

When the Ex is on, Phillips sits at a desk in an a tiny office inside Volunteer House, armed with a desktop computer, a walkie talkie, and a scheduling sheet broken down into three-hour shifts. She has nothing but praise for the volunteers, who she says work tirelessly and without complaint.

“FeFe Dobson is playing (Saturday night) and her band has to catch a plane for Toronto at 4:15 a.m. (Sunday) morning. We will have two volunteers who will pick them up and get them to the airport. And volunteers do that for all the headliners.”

Phillips said volunteers are only required to work one, three-hour shift, but most work two or more shifts. Some, like the Gregorashs, are at the EX every day.

The volunteers do receive perks, Phillips said: a hot meal (Saturday it was pork on a bun with pasta salad and a drink), two guest passes, and an invitation to a volunteer appreciation dinner held every fall (each volunteer can bring a guest, there is a cash bar).

Steven Loszchuk, 51, has been volunteering at the Ex for 38 years. “I started with the parade, got involved through friends and just kept coming back every year.”

Now Loszchuk is a member of the Red River Ex board of directors.

“I really love seeing the kids enjoying themselves. You don’t get to see that every day.”

Vic Pinchin is believed to be both the oldest volunteer and the longest-serving volunteer. He’s 92 and began at the Ex in 1961.

“I used to be a hog judge at the Pacific National Exhibition (in Vancouver) and when I moved here in 1960 I was asked to volunteer.”

A senior executive with Canada Safeway before he retired, Pinchin said he’s emceed the annual shows that were put on for service clubs, judged talent shows, emceed during volunteer appreciation nights, and worked with community groups.

A broken arm will limit his volunteering hours this summer but Pinchin said he’s determined to go out to the Ex sometime in the next week.

“Volunteering every year is an opportunity to do something good for the city of Winnipeg,” Pinchin said. “People who volunteer are people who want to do things for their community.”

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca

Exhibition history

1951 — Winnipeg’s first summer exhibition, organized by the Kinsmen Club of Winnipeg, held at Sherburn Park on Portage Avenue, known as Kin Karnival.

1952 — The first exhibition was so popular, it was moved to the Osborne Stadium and Winnipeg Amphitheatre and renamed the Red River Exhibition.

1953 — Attendance reached 60,000

1954 — Ex moved to the Polo Park race track

1955 — Ex moved into the new Winnipeg Stadium/Arena complex

1997 — Ex moved to 480-acre site adjacent to Assiniboia Downs

2001 — Record attendance of 203,814 Opening night attendance:

2010 — 642 (It rained all day)

2011 — 17,000