Eastern Iowa Farmer Fall 2018

WHY FARMERS MATTER
Gifts from the heart
Quietly philanthropic, farmers leave their legacy by providing
scholarships, sustaining charitable causes and supporting community
projects through gifts of grain, land and life insurance policies
Dan and Don
Burzlaff
Grand Mound
Don Burzlaff and his family
believe in giving back to the
community. The family has
a decades’ long history of
donating grain for charitable
causes. Don’s son, Dan,
raises hogs and runs the
farm operation. He often will
donate a hog for community
events, such as the Welton
Fire Department’s raffle.
EASTERN IOWA FARMER
PHOTO / BROOKE TAYLOR
BY NANCY MAYFIELD
EASTERN IOWA FARMER
St. John’s Lutheran
Church is just a stone’s
throw from Don Burzlaff’s
family farm in
rural Grand Mound.
Last year, the tidy white-sided
church got a new roof, with some
help from Burzlaff, its neighbor
to the north and a congregation
member.
“I just like to help when I can,”
said Burzlaff, who recently retired
from farming. His son Dan now
runs the operation, growing corn
and soybeans and raising hogs.
Over the years, when Burzlaff
saw a need, he quietly addressed it
by loading his “little wagon” full
of grain, taking it to the elevator,
and requesting that the proceeds
go to a charitable cause.
That wagon, which can carry
250 bushels of corn or soybeans,
has made many trips to the elevator
to benefit the church, the
Central Community Historical Society,
and the DeWitt Community
Hospital Foundation, among other
organizations.
“I do it because I can,” Burzlaff
said, sitting at his kitchen table on
a recent rainy afternoon, humbly
hesitant to talk about his dona-
eifarmer.com FALL 2018 | EASTERN IOWA FARMER 87