Harvest for Kids organizers aiming for 300 combines in new record attempt

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Organizers are aiming to create a harvest scene in southern Manitoba on August 4th that’s never been seen before: 300 combines working simultaneously in the same field.

The Harvest for Kids 2018 record attempt is planned for 2 pm on the Saturday afternoon in a winter wheat field just south of Winkler, Manitoba.

Created to raise awareness and funds for Children’s Camps International (CCI), Harvest for Kids organizers are planning to break their own Guinness record, set during a similar project in Dalmeny, Saskatchewan, in 2012. That event included 244 combines, drawing an estimated audience of around 20,000 people.

Where will these 300 combines come from?

As Harvest for Kids 2018 event coordinator George Klassen explains in the interview below, they’re asking farmers across Manitoba and beyond to volunteer and register their combines, with all makes and models welcome (you can register combines here).

“Logistically, we’ll have small swaths for smaller combines, large ones for larger combines. We’re going to GPS the whole field so we have the right fit for the combines coming that day,” he says.

Harvest for Kids organizers Dave Thiessen and George Klassen

Several agribusinesses, equipment dealers, and trucking companies are also contributing to the effort, bringing combines from as far away as north of Saskatoon.

“The dealerships, it’s been incredible to see, they’re all working together. They know there will be all different colours in the field, but they’ll be there, because of the cause,” says Dave Thiessen, national director of CCI Harvest for Kids.

They’re expecting more than 25,000 spectators on August 4th, so Klassen urges people to show up several hours early to make sure they don’t miss the main event. A free concert will also be held on the Friday night will include High Valley, the Hunter Brothers (of “Combine Got Stuck” fame), and Rosemary & the Sweet Sound Revival.

The original CCI harvest event was held in at Winkler in 2006, when over a 100 combines harvested 160 acres of wheat in 11 minutes. In 2010, 212 combines participated in the second Harvest for Kids, which set the official Guinness world record that was later broken by farmers in Ireland, and then again by Saskatchewan farmers in Dalmeny in 2012.

Children’s Camps International is a faith-based non-profit organization that works with local partners to host camp programs in developing countries.

Listen to Dave Thiessen, national director of CCI Harvest for Kids, and George Klassen, event coordinator, discuss the plan for their August 4th combine record attempt at Winkler, Manitoba:

Related: Harvest for Kids Looks to Break a World Record

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