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Show bags filled with fun and history

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Kristy Rudd from the Shepparton Heritage Centre was selling the show bags all day at the show. Photo by Rechelle Zammit

The Shepparton Heritage Centre had a very busy weekend at the Shepparton Show.

The Heritage Centre's stall at the McIntosh Centre offered a range of family-friendly activities, including a scavenger hunt, a 'guess the marbles' game, and the return of their popular show bags for the second year running.

The show bags are a beloved feature of their stall at the show every year, with acting president Kristy Rudd saying many locals from around Shepparton have helped put them together.

“We’ve had lots of businesses, non-for-profits, councillors, SPC and a whole range of people who have donated items to go into the show bags,” she said.

“There’s even a coffee voucher in there for the parents.”

Inside the bags, excited kids would find fruit and chocolates, a historical magazine, stationary from Bunnings and Victoria Police, as well as vouchers from McDonald's, Cold Rock and Stellars Coffee, with plenty more goodies inside.

“The Shepparton Agricultural show back 20 or 30 years ago (was very different), it has changed a lot from the community show where we used to have horses and cattle and everything in the middle of the show area,” Mrs Rudd said.

“Back in that time, all the service clubs used to do show bags. It was a cheaper alternative (for parents), but it’s also a way that the service clubs actually raised money.”

Alongside the show bags, the Heritage Centre also had plenty of activities for kids to have some fun, with a guess the marbles jar as well as a scavenger hunt that saw kids run around the whole showgrounds for a chance to take home a new mountain bike.

“The first year we ran it, we had kids counting the steps in the grandstand,” Mrs Rudd said.

“But (this year) we kept it very simple, but it’s also just to encourage the kids to actually look around and look at the different pavilions.”

The show bags came at a cost of $10, with all funds raised from them going towards the Shepparton Heritage Centre. The funds will help support their community engagement programs as well as the running of the museum.