The 2006 Peterborough County International Plowing Match (IPM) president, Norm Blodgett, has closed the books on the $2.5 million event. His last act was to pay back $50,000 of seed money to the City of Peterborough.

However, the local council had written off the $50,000 it provided in seed money. And well it should have. The IPM has paid out more than $300,000 to 15 charitable organizations, with the biggest amount — $75,000 – going toward constructing a new building at Lang Century Village, near Keene and the site of the IPM.

The new building, Blodgett says, will house artifacts now in storage. The displays will be rotated throughout the summer season.

But success for the hard-driving Blodgett, a 1950s Kemptville College graduate and insurance company owner, came at a high price. After the 2006 event, he went into hospital for a triple heart by-pass. He has fully recovered.

His advice on succeeding is that this is not for the timid. "To make things work, you have to get things right, even when the actions don’t jibe with the advice of experts," he says. So what’s the last word on the 2006 plowing match. "We paid our debts," he says.

The Peterborough County match attracted about 84,000 people.