By Nancy Dorrance
with photography by Bernard Clark
Just when Yvonne Compton was struggling to adjust to her new life as a retiree, the Kingston Fall Fair Board came calling … again. And this time, they had an offer she couldn’t refuse.
It was 2015, and the Wolfe Island resident had recently retired from her position as a conveyancing law clerk with the Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO) after 15 years there, preceded by another 25 with Kingston law firms. “For 40 years, I’d had an office and a computer and lots of files to manage,” she recalls. “Suddenly, I was bored!”
Having run the fair’s horse show since 2005 and filled other Board positions, including VP, Yvonne had been tapped before to consider the presidency. But the responsibilities from her MTO day job — combined with helping husband, Greg MacDonald, a fifth-generation Island farmer — were more than enough to fill her schedule. Now, with new-found time on her hands, Yvonne enthusiastically accepted the presidency of the Kingston and District Agricultural Society, which oversees the annual event and this year celebrates its 200th anniversary.
After the 193rd Fall Fair closes this September — a span interrupted only by wars and COVID — Yvonne will step down from her position as president. It’s been an exhilarating 10 years, she says, . . .
