Another successful Highland Games in Embro

Posted By Cory Smith, SENTINEL-REVIEW

There's a reason the Embro Highland Games has lasted 72 years.

New events like sheep shearing and dog agility have been added to traditional favourites like massed pipe bands and highland dancing to keep the annual Canada Day event relevant.

Then there is the Memorial Tug-of-War Championships, the anchor of the Games.

"If people get into the tug-of-war event they (can) get into dancing and pipe bands," said tug-of-war committee member Ron Totten, a longtime fixture at the Games. "The massed bands are a big draw."

The first Embro Highland Games was held in 1937 and was patterned after a former group set up in 1856 to perpetuate "the spirit, music and games of Scotland."

It wasn't until 1993 when the Games moved to its current location at the Embro West Zorra Community Centre from Matheson Park to accommodate the growing popularity.

"The whole venue (Matheson Park) was much smaller than here," former Ontario tug-of-war league coordinator Malcolm Monteith said. "They had this facility and decided it would be less crowded. They used to have difficulty parking and it's much better up here."

The move also allowed the organizing committee to expand its events.

"The sheep shearing is new and dog agility is new," Totten said. "There is a new heavy event that takes place. It's spreading out and having events for everybody.

"I think it's been a progression of adding events and new people come to the Games."

Just as the new events attract new visitors, the traditional events remain the favourites.

Helen Pinder, June Moore and Marilyn Ackersviller -- all from Mitchell -- had the same answer when asked what brought them to Embro.

"I love the bagpipes," Pinder said. "The bands, seeing the tartans, the skirts, everything. I had an uncle that played the bagpipes in the Clinton band."

It was Pinder's second time at the Games.

Moore, however, has attended almost every year since she was five.

She professed an affinity for bagpipes and massed bands, enjoying the "sound and the swing, the sway, the skirts."

Moore also has a soft spot for highland dancing.

"I'm jealous of them. They're too thin and they're bouncing around," she joked. "My mother did that but I didn't inherit the agility to do that."

Totten acknowledged there is a limit to how large the event can grow, but said the tradition sells itself.

Last year a record 4,200 people attended. Numbers were expected to drop slightly Wednesday because of the threat of rain, but Totten expects crowds of 4,500 to soon become the norm.

"People within a 25 kilometre radius of Embro have found that this is a great thing for the whole family," he said.

corysmith@bowesnet.com

Article ID# 1638265