Ella Jones wins trophy for most points from 2024 Tavistock Fall Fair

Ella Jones is pictured with the Laura Hansuld Trophy for obtaining the highest number of points in the Junior Division at the 2024 Tavistock Fall Fair. Contributed photo

By Gary West

A young teenager has become a perennial winner at the Tavistock Fall Fair after entering 75 different fall fair classes earlier this year.

Ella Jones was awarded the Laura Hansuld Trophy for earning top points in the junior division of the 2024 Tavistock Fall Fair. She is a daughter of Beth and George Jones.

The 16 year-old, who is in Grade 11 at Eastwood Collegiate Institute, has won the trophy five times in past years and loves preparing entries for the annual fair because of her many abilities and her natural competitive nature. She says she only enters exhibits from the Tavistock Agricultural Society fall fair prize book.

The beautiful, large trophy is in honour of Hansuld, a farm girl born in Waterloo region and went to school there. After graduation, she taught in that district and she then decided to go into training as a nurse. She moved to Chicago and became head nurse in one of the big hospitals there.

Later, Hansuld was a Red Cross nurse in the U.S. Army. In 1926, she married Edmond Hansel, a farmer in East Zorra Township, and her interest turned to farming, homemaking and her family.

In 1946, Laura Hansuld had the idea for organizing the women of the district to form a Women’s Institute (WI) group. She became its first president.

It was Laura Hansuld who chose the name, Anna P. Lewis. Lewis was the superintendent of Women’s Institutes for Ontario from 1945-1955 and was responsible for many innovative changes made to WI in that time period.

Lewis passed away in 1994 and Laura Hansuld passed away in March 1961. During that following September, the Tavistock Agricultural Society received a donation from Laura’s Hansuld’s church.

That gave them the idea of starting a memorial fund in her honour. With the memorial fund, they have bought the large trophy pictured, which is awarded to the fair entrant with the highest points in the junior age group, 10-18 years, at the local Tavistock Fall Fair. At the same time, they purchase a small gift each year to be presented to the winner.

 This year, Jones was gifted a silver bracelet for winning the trophy.