One of the Chesterville Rotary Clubs longest lasting fundraisers involves generous local landowners donating the use of a plot of land, which is then planted and harvested with the proceeds going to the Rotary Club. The results can be seen all around the community. Tinkess Photo

CHESTERVILLE – If you travel County Road 43 south of Chesterville, you may have seen a recently erected sign on the south side of the road that reads “Rotary Crop Project” and “Thanks Vanden Bosch Farms, Frank Heerkens, and Creig and April Wheeler.”

Well, inquiring minds want to know, so we contacted Martin Derks, a past president of the Chesterville Rotary Club to find out what it was all about.

“Well, basically, it’s a Rotary project,” said Derks, “And I can’t remember how many years we’ve been doing it, but it’s quite a few years.”

According to Derks, Rotary is the benefactor of the generosity of Vanden Bosch Farms, April and Creig Wheeler, and (Frank) Heerkens. They have donated the use of their property for the purpose of growing crops. “It alternates between corn and beans, and Vanden Bosch does all the work, the planting, spraying, harvesting, and anything else that needs doing,” adds Derks, “And then in the fall, we get a check from Vanden Bosch elevator. And we get gross, not net!

“It’s a big fundraiser for us, probably the biggest one we have. Most of it goes into projects. I’ll give you an example: We’re putting up three welcome signs to Chesterville, which is a close to a $20,000 deal. They’re not up yet, but they will be coming very shortly.”  The renovation of the fountain in the river is another project. It was a Rotary project that was initially started almost 20 years ago.

“The clock that you see in Chesterville, it has gone to that,” continues Derks.  “We’ve maintained it, and there was a $9,000 bill on that. And we also fund the Winchester Hospital and Dundas Manor.  We try to keep local, but then we do get involved in international Rotary:  Some money goes towards… we call them shelter boxes.”

Derks has been a member since 1980, a past president three times over.  Like many volunteer organizations there is from time to time some difficulty in recruiting new members, but Derks says that things are pretty good at the moment.

The creativity that goes into fundraising never ceases to amaze me, as does the willingness of so many people to give so freely of their time to help make their community a better place to live. It was a great decision to erect a sign because the very least that can be given to those who do so much is a thank you from those who appreciate their efforts.