THE PAPER
February 29, 2012
Proudly Serving Wabash County Since 1977
Wabash residents team up to leave mark on community over 8,000 miles away by Brent Swan On Feb. 24, a team of volunteers met at Max Meyer’s farm in rural Wabash to load a 40foot long container that will be shipped overseas to a village in Malawi, Africa. The group, sponsored in part by Circle of Hope International and Roann Church of the Brethren, packed the trailer full of usable equipment ranging anywhere from basic medical supplies to a tractor and three-row planter. What started after a guest speaker at the Roann Church of
Brethren has now led the group of volunteers to donate time, money and services to aid in a community development mission Circle of Hope International operates in rural Malawi. “We at Circle of Hope International take care of orphaned and at risk children in the community,” Circle of Hope Director Karen Roller said. “We have an orphanage, preschool, and medical program, partnering with a local church in Malawi to do that work. Our
idea is that when we train the community to help themselves then they can do that job better than we can.” That model has helped the organization promote better nutrition and agricultural practices among many other fundamental changes. One such example of the organization’s
attempt to improve agricultural practices in Malawi involved the most basic of changes. “All their farming is done by hand,” Austin Carrothers said. “They are way behind when it comes to things like precision planting, where farmers here in the United States know you put one seed in a hole - a lot of the farmers in Malawi might plant three. We know more about plant health and fertilizer. We try to help them learn about how to improve their practices.”
Carrothers is set to make his second trip to Malawi this month, before taking his entire family in June to gauge their interest in moving to Malawi. “It hasn’t been a hard decision at all really,” Carrothers said of the decision to go back and possibly make the move. “It’s something we’ve thought about doing as a family for a long time now and we’ve just been waiting on confirmation that this is what we were meant to do.” The most memorable moments from his experience in Malawi comes upon arrival to the community for the first time. Not knowing what to expect while pulling up to the village, the reception left a permanent impression upon Carrothers. “ T h e y will have usually gathered all the pastors in the area, all the volunteers a n d employees at the orphanage, and the kids that are in the feeding program, so
the first sight you see are the happiest people you have ever seen in your life, with love to back it up,” Carrothers explained. “People over there are very nice and loving.” After coming back from his first trip, Carrothers had talked about going back to Malawi for quite awhile before finalizing this upcoming trip. Scheduling a trip for local residents had presented a form of a challenge as the slow time of the year in Wabash County, winter, runs hand in hand with the famine season in Malawi. While speaking with Roller, Carrothers noted there was no time of greater need than March in Malawi. As the amount of corn reserves from the previous season in Malawi begin to dwindle, this year’s crop is not yet ready for harvest. “I said to her that isn’t this when we are needed the most?” Carrothers explained. “After agreeing to that, we got a group together and began seeking donations to take over there.” This past year, two pastors from Malawi made the trip to the United States to visit the very people that
had visited them previously. “It was harvest season here in Indiana and in Texas,” Carrothers said. “The guys had never been around farm machinery, much less driven it, as they farm entirely by hand in Malawi. They dig the holes to plant the seeds in and they shuck the corn by hand. As soon as they got on a tractor and realized they could do as much in five minutes as they can do in six months over in Malawi they were sold on a tractor forever.” At that point, Roller said the organization began to hope, and pray, to have the opportunity to send a tractor over to the village. “Three or four weeks ago, we got a tractor donated by a couple in Texas, Elroy and Vickie Wisian,” Roller said. “I texted Austin the minute I got off the phone and told him we had a tractor – now what?” Carrothers then flew down to Texas to pick up the John Deere utility tractor and load it into a UHaul van to bring it back to Indiana, where it was loaded Feb. 24, alongside a three-row planter, (continued on page 6)
Halderman celebrated as Distinguished Ag Alumni
H o w a r d Halderman, Wabash, has been awarded the Distinguished Agriculture Alumni (DAA) Award, one of the top honors presented annually by the College of Agriculture at Purdue University. He and nine other honorees will be recognized on March 2 during a reception and convocation at the Purdue Memorial Union. The DAA awards have been presented
each year since 1992 to honor mid–career Purdue Agriculture graduates who have made significant contributions to their profession or society in general and have a record of outstanding accomplishments, said Jay Akridge, Glenn W. Sample Dean of Agriculture. “The College of Agriculture gives out six to ten of these awards every year,” H a l d e r m a n explained. “It’s a recognition for alum-
ni who have contributed to agriculture in a variety of different ways.” Halderman, nominated due to his work with Halderman Real Estate and Halderman Farm Management, said the award is humbling. “To me this award is a culmination of a lot of different contributions from different people,” Halderman said. “I would not have been able to gain this individual recognition if
it were not for the contributions of the 30 or 40 plus people involved in this business and our family.” In describing what initially drew Halderman to Purdue, Halderman explained Purdue had been a part of the Halderman family for years. “Our family business has always been centered around agriculture and as I went through Northfield High School and con(continued on page 6)
Index Classifieds ....................27-31
Weekly Reports ............12-15
D&E ..............................10-11
Communty News ..........20-23
HOWARD HALDERMAN was recently awarded the Distinguished Agriculture Alumni Award, one of the top honors presented annually by the College of Agriculture at Purdue University. (photo by Brent Swan)
In Memoriam Donald Alber, 88 Jack Burke, 77 Dwight Hentgen, 83
Robert Holland, 65 Betty Kamp, 85 John Lewis, 86
Vol. 34, No. 50
Evelyn Myers, 86 Clara Young, 76 Ruthanna Christle, 87
PO Box 603, Wabash, IN 46992 (260) 563-8326