'Grower Program' participants parade their lambs at the Timmins Fall Fair

The Timmins Fall Fair returned this weekend after a hiatus due to the pandemic and it was bigger than ever.

Aside from the usual garden harvest displays and prize-winning farm animals, there were a few new additions to the event, including a showing of the lambs that were part of the Fair's Grower Program.

“My biggest hope is to get kids passionate about agriculture and be part of the community that we have here in Timmins and hopefully growing that community for the North," Erin Rathbone, coordinator of the Timmins Fall Fair Grower Program, told CTV News.

Children and their families who participated in the program paraded the woolly creatures in the main coral to show the public how they cared for the animals over the summer and actually trained the lambs to walk in halters.

“They do not like the halters, but they do love us," Zeke Andrews, a participant in the Grower Program, said.

This is the first time organizers have offered lambs to families who live in rural areas.

"It’s great for the kids and it gets them out in the public and show off all the hard work that they’ve been doing," Rock Whissell, president of the Porcupine Agricultural Society, said.

Whissell said the team who organized Fall Fair is thankful for the support from the public. By the end of the weekend, more than three-thousand people passed through the fairgrounds.