Aitkens receive farm family of the year award

Modesty best describes Moose Jaw's Farm Family of the Year.
Winning the award was nice, said Eyebrow farmer Robert Aitken after the Moose Jaw Exhibition Company-sponsored recognition was presented Friday.
But the family had to sit down and think about accepting the award when told it had been selected from the nominations.
"It wasn't that I didn't want to accept," he said. "I don't like being in the public eye. I'd far rather be sitting in the back row."
Being appreciated for his farming and community work feels good, but "there are lots of other people who do piles of work for our communities too."
Everybody should try and do the best they can for their community, he said.
When he accepted the award, Aitken thanked every one but said there would be no speech to allow a friend to attend the last part of the Warriors game.
Aitken, his wife Eleese, and their children, Josee and Justine, live on a second generation farm in the Eyebrow district.
They grow flax, lentils, wheat, canola, chickpeas, and seed alfalfa, a crop they enhance with use of leaf cutter bees.
On the livestock side, they raise horses, chickens for eggs, cats and dogs.
Both Robert and Eleese are community-oriented.
Eleese, principal at Eyebrow School, is involved in the Eyebrow Fair, curling, the curling kitchen crew and an organization offering adult instruction.
Robert's community involvement includes operating lights and sound for events from community theatre to Canadian figure skating functions.
Robert is ice master at the curling rink, volunteer firefighter, president of the Tugaske Co-op, a former member of the Eyebrow First Responders and a past president of 4-H.
The couple's daughters are involved in dancing and skating clubs.
"These people have set an example for all of us," Thunder Creek MLA Lyle Stewart said, referring to the Farm Family of the Year and the 4-H Hall of Fame recipients.
"The key to our future is our people - like the people we are recognizing tonight - people of commitment, dedication, loyalty and people with the best work ethic in the world."

Ron Walter can be reached at 691-1264.