Friends, countrymen, lend us your ear

 

 

The Don Bauer family farm stretches along two-lane Highway 54 in west-central Ohio, USA. It is a straight-ahead road, one you can count on. On a clear day, you can see the horizon past the old silos and golden fields of corn that border the highway.

Bauer’s grandfather, A.G. Samuelson, bought the land in 1942 as a dairy farm for his daughter. Today, the family breeds national champion cattle and grows corn and soybeans on the 325-acre Hearthstone Farm.

A longtime member of the Rotary Club of Urbana, Bauer recruited 35 farmers last year to help eradicate polio. Through the Acre of Corn club fundraiser that he created and coordinates, the farmers pledge the gross income from 1 acre of their harvest.

Their donations go toward Rotary’s US$200 Million Challenge, the response to $355 million in grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The funds support immunization efforts in Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, and Pakistan – the last four polio-endemic countries – and in other places where polio remains a threat.

“There’s only one disease that’s been wiped off the map, and that’s smallpox,” Bauer says during a conversation one morning at his farm. He adds that polio has nearly been eliminated as well. “I was surprised to learn that, two years ago, our district governor had gone to Nigeria, where in two days, more than 30 million children were immunized – all by volunteers. I was floored.”

Bauer, who’s wearing a purple polo shirt and green suspenders on this sunny spring day, is an affable guy whose personality suits his business. He and his wife, Jane, sell stoves and fireplaces out of a small store located on their property, underneath a giant hackberry tree.

He credits his morning shower with inspiring Acre of Corn. “The best ideas come when you’re in the shower,” he says. “I had read an article in The Rotarian by Past RI President John Kenny. He wrote about how we need to engage non-Rotarians in the polio fight. Most people in the United States don’t even realize polio is a problem. When you explain it, then they understand it.”

Just three of the Acre of Corn donors are Rotarians: Bauer and his fellow club members Mike Pullins and Terry Howell, who serve as cochairs of the fundraiser.

“We’re the only Rotary club in Champaign County,” Bauer says. “When the club was formed in 1957, it was probably about half ag and half city people. Today, we three are the only ones involved in ag.” But the club still brings together farmers and city residents for its annual Rural Urban Night, where the Farmer of the Year is named.

Bauer says he imagined that pitching the polio fundraiser could be like selling insurance. “And who do you sell insurance to? Your friends,” he says, noting that 15 previous Farmer of the Year winners signed up at last year’s Rural Urban Night. “We know them, they know Rotary. Why don’t we ask them about donating an acre of corn to fight polio?”

When the Urbana club launched Acre of Corn in February 2010, it got off to a fast start, Pullins says. “And it’s going to grow,” he predicts. “It’s a good time for corn farmers to tie in with charity. Commodity prices in 2011 more than doubled from 2010. Yields have been good for the last couple of years. Farmers have had a good income, and are willing to share that for a good cause.”

How much is an acre of corn worth? “It’s up to the individual,” Bauer says. “They pick the yield and what they sold their corn for, and then write a check to The Rotary Foundation.” Some contributors, including Bauer, who rent their land to other farmers, donated the rent for 1 acre, which averaged $650 to $700, he says. The donors received certificates and green End Polio Now baseball caps.

It was only after last year’s Rural Urban banquet that the Urbana Rotarians discovered that the latest Farmer of the Year was a polio survivor. Bud Runyan, a retired high school teacher who now farms with his son, had contracted the disease when he was a teenager. “I’m thankful I was lucky enough to come out of it without problems, and that I can do something to prevent polio,” says Runyan, who signed up at the banquet for Acre of Corn.  

Bauer, Pullins, and Howell are not surprised that the fundraiser has grabbed the attention of their fellow farmers. Says Pullins: “Many of them remember polio. I vividly remember my parents taking me to school for the vaccine. We had a guy who said, ‘I have a sister who had polio. I’m going to donate 3 acres.’ Farmers remember polio for what it was and what it is – a real scourge on young people.”