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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuron Expositor, 2015-10-21, Page 22 Huron Expositor • Wednesday, October 21, 2015 For every Blue Jays home run, Seaforth farmer gives 100 litres of milk AL Shaun Gregory Huron Expositor Derek Holland stared deep down to the ground and leaned over the railing of the Texas Rang- ers dugout. The struggling lefty pitcher allowed three home runs in the first two innings during Game 4 of the American League Division Series. For him it appears comparable to a nightmare, but for the food banks of Huron County, it means 300 litres of milk. On October 7, one day before Game 1 at the Rogers Centre. Dairy farmer, Derek Van Dieten from Seaforth tweeted to the Toronto Blue Jays, right fielder Jose Batista, third baseman Josh Donaldson and infielder Edwin Encarnacion with a motivational memo. A tweet that hit the social media by storm. He informed all Blue Jays that for every home run hit in the first round of the play- offs, a donation of 100 litres of milk would be given to the local food banks. The feedback was overwhelming said the 30 -year- old on the phone from the farm in Seaforth. "It's been going pretty steady when I sent that tweet out," said Van Dieten. "I don't know how many retweets it got, but I had to shut the Twitter off because I couldn't get any sleep." With a history of donating milk, Van Dieten is one of the 500 dairy farmers across the It's been going pretty steady when I sent that tweet out." "I don't know how many retweets it got, but had to shut the Twitter off because I couldn't get any sleep." — said Van Dieten. province to contribute fresh milk every month in a program put together by the Ontario Associa- tion of Food Banks. It's an aiding initiative according to the organ- ization's website that sees more than one million litres of milk every year. Likewise, Van Dieten's farm of about 140 Holstein cows gener- ates a yearly rate in the range of 900,000 to one million litres of milk. The transformation of sum- mer into autumn came with a larger than usual workload for both Van Dieten and the Blue Jays. Since the beginning of sum- mer the Seaforth native has aver- aged monthly numbers of more than 130,000 litres of the highly packed calcium liquid. Mean- while, the Blue Jays have made it Shaun Gregory Huron Expositor Derek Van Dieten stands in front of his barn that produces approximately one million litres of milk yearly. He plans to donate 100 litres of milk for every home run hit by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 2015 post -season. to the second round of the post - season welcoming the team for the first time in 22 years after winning back-to-back World Series Championships. That was around the era when Van Dieten had the time to pay attention to baseball, he laughs now. "I'm a bandwagon Blue Jays fan," Van Dieten said. A fellow friend of Van Dieten's, Kurtis Thomson an avid Blue Jays Acknowledge Exceptional. Help us celebrate the junior citizens who make our communities better. Nominate someone age 6-17 for a 2015 Ontario Junior Citizen Award! • Maya Burhanpurkar zolo Ontario Junior Citizen, Shanty Bay, ON Do you know someone who is involved in worthwhile community service, is contributing while living with a limitation, has performed an heroic act, demonstrates individual excellence, or is going above and beyond to help others? If so, nominate them today! Nomination forms are available from this newspaper, and the Ontario Community Newspapers Association at www.ocna.org or 905-639-8720 ext. 4439. ONTARIO JUNIOR CITIZEN AWARDS A ocria. _ _ Sponsored by: 1D fan received the details of the spe- cific milk plan. In a recent inter- view, Thomson told the Expositor Van Dieten "wanted to know if his idea was pretty good" and after analyzing it, Thomson promptly responded and stated that it was "awesome." Inspired by his friend's con- cept, Thomson, 29, also a dairy farmer himself joined the milk drive and tweeted that he will donate 100 litres of milk for every strikeout by any pitcher from the Blue Jays in Game 5 October 14, even if the pitcher performs a flawless nine -inning performance. "I guess, I'll have 2700 of milk to do," said Thomson from the family farm in Marintown Ont., Toronto Blue Jays right fielder Jose Bautista (19) reacts after hitting a three -run home run against the Texas Rangers in the 7th inning in game five of the ALDS at Rogers Centre. Mandatory Credit: Peter Llewellyn - USA TODAY Sports which is about six hours from Seaforth. The Blue Jays ended up moving on in the playoffs edging the Rangers in an epic fashion by winning Game 5 with a score of 6-3. After bouncing back from a 0-2 deficit in their best -of -five series with the Rangers, this makes them the sixth team to do so since 1995.They now have their hands full as they take on the Kansas City Royals in the second round. And according to Van Dieten in a back and forth con- versation through twitter on October 18, he has gave roughly 900 litres of milk and a Twitter posted by Thomson stated he's also gave about 700 litres to the Ontario Food Banks. Well, Well, Well... Are you a HEALTH & WELLNESS PROFESSIONAL? Want to increase your business? CALL YOUR SALES REP TODAY Dawn Johnston Clinton News Record 519-482-3443 Nancy DeGans Seaforth Huron Expositor 519-527-0204 We are working on a SPECIAL FEATURE for Health & Wellness Professionals