Horsham Agricultural Society's Maydale Reserve will look a bit different the next time residents head there for an event in February.
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This week, the site's back paddock was levelled as part of an initiative by Millers Civil Contractors.
Secretary Andrea Cross said the society would now lay pipe for irrigation and sow grass to restore the lawn.
"It's a beautiful big open space for whatever shows we can have in the future," she said.
"We are obviously not running the Horsham Show at the end of September like we normally would, otherwise this would have been impossible to pull off in the time it has been. So the timing of this down-time has been quite good."
The Ag Society project is one of three in-kind grants Millers awarded, as part of the One Village Community Spirit Initiative to help people and groups in financial hardship.
Managing Director Jay Miller said: "We were sitting around (earlier this year) and it was all doom and gloom with COVID-19, and I thought we could do something for our local communities.
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"Every year we get calls for sponsorship - to hang up signs on a fence - and it's really pretty menial. We haven't been shut down by the pandemic like others have, so we just thought we could do something better."
"Staff jumped on board and were happy to volunteer their time, and I was happy to volunteer materials, so we called for submissions intending to do one worthy recipient. In the end it was a bit overwhelming and we picked three projects for the first round."
Millers has also constructed a driveway for a Horsham family with a child receiving medical treatment in Melbourne, and will landscape gardens in Natimuk's main street, around $40,000 worth of works altogether.
Though it was started in response to the pandemic, Mr Miller said he planned to make the initiative an annual event. Mrs Cross is also thinking about new annual events.
"I have been working on the 150-kilometre feast, and that's going to be our coming out of COVID-19 celebration of our farmers and winemakers that have sustained us through this period," she said.
"We will be getting into the swing of how to run smaller evens more regularly. I think that's going to be the key in the events industry, because we have been one of the hardest hit. Our last event was a wedding on March 21, and not a single cent has come through the bank account.
"Now we will be looking for sponsors to get (the feast) of the ground. It's highly likely we will be able to run it in February."
Mrs Cross said the society was yet to decide on whether it would host its annual New Year's Eve event, for which it is receiving council support, but she believed it would be workable at this stage.
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Alexander Darling
Alexander has been a member of the Wimmera Mail-Times' editorial team since December 2018, covering politics, business and property among other rounds. He is a passionate St.Kilda and rock and roll fan, and has previously worked as a radio reporter in Port Macquarie and Gosford, NSW.
Alexander has been a member of the Wimmera Mail-Times' editorial team since December 2018, covering politics, business and property among other rounds. He is a passionate St.Kilda and rock and roll fan, and has previously worked as a radio reporter in Port Macquarie and Gosford, NSW.
