2020 has been a year of adjustments for everyone, especially for those who look forward to large community events and celebrations. The town of Midale was not going to be able to have their annual threshing bee this year because of restrictions put in place, but wanted to have a celebration of some kind no matter what.

That's why this year the organizers of the annual threshing bee decided to host a parade through town instead on Saturday, and one of the organizers Ryan Swenson said it couldn't have gone much better.

"It was just kind of something we wanted to do for the community because we couldn't put on our regular show this year, and it just blew up. It was way bigger than we could've imagined. Everybody was still safe and what not but it was pretty cool."

The plan for the parade was only put together a week before the tractors rolled through town, and the original plan was to just have about 20 tractors drive by the senior centre.

Thanks to the Estevan Antique Car Club's roaming car show on the weekend joining in, the parade was much bigger than they expected it to be. 

"We were just going to do a small little thing where we could run some tractors by the senior's centre and for them they'd get to see some of that stuff, and it spiraled into a few tractors and awhole bunch of cars and it turned out really well."

Usually, the threshing bee and the rodeo in Midale go hand in hand with a full weekend of events, but this year's restrictions on large gatherings make things like that not possible. On the other hand, the machines used in the threshing bee still needed to run, and since they were getting them ready anyways, Swenson figured they might as well bring some cheer into the community.

"It was just something neat that you don't see all the time. I remember growing up as a kid there used to be like floats and stuff and parades through town on Canada Day and what not, but throughout the years it's kind of phased out and you don't really see big parades anymore and this was just a spur of the moment thing. It kind of felt like childhood again."

Different events like this have shown the resiliency and commitment people have towards their community, something that Swenson found a little inspiring.

"It speaks volumes. Everyone can wake up and do the same thing over and over until they die, but it's not until you throw something in the mix like this COVID 19 where we can'twake up in the morning and do what we've done every day. We have to find other ways and better ways to do it, and everything has to be adjusted so much. Everybody has been so welcoming to what we're trying to do because we're just trying to do stuff."

After the response this year, a parade around town may become part of the annual threshing bee moving forward.