It is during these hard times that you realize how important the support of your community is. This is proven as the Spry Farm finally found insurance after an outcry on social media captured the community’s and attention and garnered support.
After hearing about other people’s insurance struggles, Leanne Spry said she was starting to lose hope on finding insurance for this summer, which would mean that they would not be able to offer agritourism services- one of their biggest income pullers.
“It was looking really bleak so I’m super happy that someone pulled through and even better that it was someone local,” Spry said.
Spry reached out to Causeway General Insurance Brokers Ltd. She said Causeway owner, John Homer, was very proactive in offering service and connecting them with Kasey Beaushene who handled their case.
Spry said along with Causeway, they also found a policy from an insurance company in Kenora, adding that they passed along the information for both policies to friends that have been struggling to find insurance.
With the hard part now over, Spry said they can start planning for tours in the summer, taking into consideration the provincial restrictions, as many of their services are based on larger group sizes.
The Spry Farm offers a petting zoo and farm tours where larger groups of guests are able to meet all of the animals, go on a hay wagon ride along their groomed trails, and kids can enjoy the sandbox, play structure, yard games and get to see a little bit of their practical farming.
Spry adds that beekeeping and dog training have been keeping them busy, but they hope to be able to have people back on the farm as the province slowly reopens.
Spry said she is grateful for the community’s support along this journey.
“Shout out to the community and everybody that sent testimonials to us,” Spry said. “That makes a huge difference and people that shared our post and said nice things about our farm and just enjoy coming here and shared those experiences publicly, that makes a huge difference as well.”
As of June 1, Spry said they are officially able to provide their agritourism services and people can start booking farm tours.
“It was fantastic that we were able to find something because we’d hate to stop offering these experiences to the community because they really enjoy it, and we enjoy having them,” Spry said.
