ANYONE in a regional community knows the importance of the sports on Saturday morning, the annual show, white lion stores and local events.
So when the Farm Weekly met with Fiona Meiklem, 21, from the get-go you get a sense of her incredible community spirit.
From a young age, community spirit was an integral part of Fiona's life - she enjoyed a wide variety of local sports, joined school committees and played a key role in the local shows.
She is the type of person who puts her hand up to ensure local communities and organisations continue to thrive.
These are just some of the reasons why she was nominated as the Northam representative for Royal Agricultural Society (RAS) of WA's Rural Ambassador position.
She will play a key role in the Northam Show on September 9-10.
Fiona didn't progress to the award's next round, but Northam RAS representative Fiona Brown said Fiona was an integral part of the show's organisation.
"With a long-standing family involvement with the Northam RAS, Fiona understands the hard work and dedication which goes into organising and running the annual Northam Show and has been assisting with the preparation of the event and fundraising activities," Ms Brown said.
Community spirit is in the blood, with both Fiona's parents, dad Bielby (deceased) and mum Heather being involved in the Northam Show.
Fiona grew up on a 600 hectare farm between Meckering and Grass Valley and went to school in Northam, participating in a whole range of school activities and sport.
This included a trip to Sydney with the Northam Areas School band playing the clarinet, as well as playing netball, indoor netball, dancing, Auskick, hockey and representing the region at School Country Week carnivals.
"We were encouraged to give anything a go - so I did," she said.
"I was really lucky to grow up in the country and have all those great things, like the wide-open spaces and the motley crew of farm animals," she said.
Sadly Bielby passed away when Fiona was four and Heather made the tough decision to lease out the farm.
After finishing school, Fiona stayed in the ag sector, taking on a role with CBH in Northam for three years and helped manage casual staff for the Wongan Hills and Northam areas.
At a time when friends were travelling, or settling into work on the family farm, Fiona headed to the city and her role with CBH provided the gateway to a new logistics support role within the co-operative, where she co-ordinates travel for CBH staff, customers and farm members.
"The role is great - I love the attention to detail and working with the CBH team," she said.
Despite a move to Perth, Fiona still continues to support the local community as a member of the Northam RAS and will return to the town to help out at the show next month.
Her father continues to be honoured at the show, with the Bielby Meiklem Memorial Trophy to be awarded to the winner in the Supreme Champion Australian Suffolk division.
"Community spirit is so important and was really valued in our family to always help out," she said.
"Community groups and events bring so much to a town and play such an important part of living in the country.
"It's important to keep them going and that means people need to get involved."
Fiona's next big adventure is to head to Europe later this year, meeting up with her older brother Scott who is currently working in Scotland.
