For a second consecutive year, a rural community group is benefitting from the luck of Ceres farmer Wendel Trinkler. He recently won a contest hosted by Monsanto that offered a $2,500 cash prize, which he turned over on Wednesday to the Mountain View Recreation Center and the Local Warriors Club which benefits two rural schools.
Trinkler became Stanislaus County’s sole winner for a second time in Monsanto’s America’s Farmers Grow Communities program. Last year he delivered the prize cash to Westport 4-H Club. This year Trinkler and daughter Dawna Rebiero decided to split the pot, with $1,250 going to Mountain View Community Center and $1,250 going to the LWC.
The Recreation Center board will use the money for maintenance on the Community Center (Grange Hall) and ball field on Crows Landing Road just north of West Main Street. The LWC plans to use the funds on Christmas baskets for families of poor students attending Chatom and Mountain View elementary schools, scholarships and books and supplies.
Monsanto expects to invest more than $3.1 million in local communities in 1,245 eligible counties in 39 states. Nearly 60,000 farmers participated in the second annual Grow Communities program, which is designed to benefit nonprofit groups such as ag youth, schools and other civic organizations.