If you live in Rochester, there’s a pretty good chance you know Faye Moon.
She’s been on the Great Northern Show Committee for 50 years.
She has been in just about every role on the committee that you could imagine, aside from president and treasurer.
From taking care of bookwork to being appointed junior vice-president, to becoming publicity officer, and she even did a stint of working at the entrance of the show.
The first role Faye ever stepped into was as a steward and that was because her dad dobbed her into it.
“The committee was looking for a steward and my dad just said she’ll do it and pointed at me,” Faye said.
“I hadn’t even left high school yet. I must have been about 16 or 17 years old at the time.
“It’s like my husband says ‘if it’s in your blood, you can’t get rid of it’.”
If there is one thing for certain, it is definitely in the blood.
In fact, Faye has a long family history of beef cattle farmers — beef cattle farmers who would put their animals on display at the Great Northern Show.
She is the fourth generation of her family to be involved with the show, her daughter the fifth, and her grandchildren are now the sixth.
Her daughter Kim Mitchell was secretary of the committee between 2001 and 2002 and president in 2004.
Faye made history when she was appointed one of the first female cattle stewards to ever work the show and now her granddaughters are just starting to break into stewarding roles themselves.
As to why she has stayed in the game so long, Faye humbly answered she just enjoyed the work.
“In some ways, I feel I can understand the people who are exhibiting their animals, I can relate to their feelings and where they come from,” she said.
“We’ve created such a tight knit community around the show.
“We have long-time sponsors, who, in some cases have been sponsoring for as long I have been there, if not longer.
“There are generations of families involved, just like mine.”
Faye said she had watched children grow up and go on to become instrumental leaders within the committee.
“There’s people I know where their grandparents used to show, then their kids started showing and their kids after them,” she said.
“And there’s people I knew really well whose families haven’t kept the tradition going.”
Faye said more and more young people had started to join the committee in recent years.
Faye and some of the other long-time committee members have been actively trying to give more responsibility to the up-and-coming members who will one day take over.
Last year Faye compiled all the notes about her role and all she has learned — notes that are sure to become an invaluable source of information for someone one day.
“I’ll admit it can sometimes be hard to step back, but I think it’s important we give them more of the responsibility because I won’t be here in another 50 years,” she said.
“I’m still here to guide them and support them because we do have a lot of knowledge and experience that they can be useful to them, but there will come a time where I will one day have to fully stop and they will need to know how to do it on their own.”
The show, now in its 135th year, has evolved many times.
Faye remembered the show when it used to be held on one day, a Wednesday in October.
The show had its own public holiday, which was declared by council at the time.
After Elmore Field Days — another spring show in October — came on the scene, the committee had to rethink its approach.
It then became a two-day event held across a Friday and Saturday in February, switching the public holiday from the Wednesday to the Friday.
That lasted a few years until the public holiday was taken away.
After that, only a limited amount of people were showing up on the Friday during the day because they now had work and school to attend.
Today, the show is held across the Friday evening and the whole of Saturday.
When she looked back on all the years, Faye said there were a few special memories she would forever cherish.
The first, by a mile, was when her daughter and son-in-law won the Margaret Stone Memorial Award for their cattle.
Margaret meant a great deal to Faye and her family and this moment was something forever be imprinted on her heart.
The second was when she was awarded a life membership to the show.
She had no idea what was going on when her fellow committee members stormed the arena while she was reading out the show results and presented her with a life membership.
And finally, the third was when there was an Australian Red Poll cattle feature at the show — Faye’s favourite breed of cattle.
Show president Pat Nicholson said without people like Faye on the committee the show would not have lasted as long as it had.
“The knowledge that people like Faye bring to the committee is indispensable,” Mr Nicholson said.
When asked what her father would say now it had been 50 years since that first day he dobbed her into being a steward, Faye said that he would be proud.