She said Home Industries volunteers were blown away by the number of children's entries, particularly the number of entries from Pongaroa children.
"The young ones come into the Home Industries hall and make a bee-line for the children's entries and they realise they can make the same things so they tend to enter the following year."
Henricksen said the only disappointment was the lack of entries in the traditions show courts category, an integral part of the Home Industries competition which showcases a variety of skills from cooking, sewing, knitting, crocheting and toy making.
This year only one entry was received and that was from Rua Roa WI.
Henricksen said Rua Roa was always wonderful at supporting this category.
"But we are going to have to have a revamp around the show courts. We need to go back to the drawing board on this and come up with something different. Anybody can enter this but it's not being supported by the different groups."
This year was Henricksen's first as association president . Previously she was vice president and was able to co-ordinate the Home Industries but with her new role she had to rely on the volunteers.
"All the volunteers were a great help and kept things running well."
She also thanked the many sponsors of the Home Industries.
"Our sponsors are absolutely wonderful and more so this year after all they have been through with Covid."
In presenting the Home Industries prizes Henricksen said it had been a difficult year with uncertainty created by Covid and some shows being cancelled.
"However, we have had a lot of new competitors and that is very rewarding. I hope we can get even more new competitors next year."
Eleanor Stairmand, of Havelock North, was a major prizewinner in the cooking section of the Home Industries at the Dannevirke A&P Show. Photo Supplied
A new entrant was Eleanor Stairmand from Havelock North who won the Warrington Trophy for most points in the cooking and preserves section, the A. Wilkinson Trophy for most points in cooking and handcraft and the H I Hunter Tray for the most points in the handcraft, cooking and vegetable section.
In accepting her prizes Stairmand said she entered her first Home Industries competition as a 10-year-old.
"I was one of five girls in my family and we all liked to cook."
Stairmand said she and her sister sponsored a class in the Carterton show. This was one of the show that was cancelled so she decided to enter the Dannevirke show.
"I'm so glad I did as everyone here is so friendly and welcoming."
Stairmand said she entered 16 items in the show but left one behind sitting on the bench.
Rua Roa WI member Jocelyn McKay won the N M L Lambert Cup for the most points in handcraft, knitting, sewing and crochet and the Quigley Cup for most points overall with runner-up Shelley Bradley.
The photography competition was popular with visitors to the show.
Sharing the hall with the Home Industries was the photographic competition which attracted 164 photographs from 21 entrants. This was the same number of entrants as last year but there were considerably more photographs this year, co-ordinator Roger Burson said.
Supreme champion was Kaitlin Edmonds who also took out the adult/open champion title while the secondary school champion was Cecelia Spicer-Kendrick and the primary/pre-school champion was Georgie Hogan. The open animal section champion was Dean Shuker.
