Plympton-Wyoming sunflower field honoring Max’s memory

There are three hearts in the sunflower field this year at Brian Schoonjans’ Douglas Line farm in Plympton-Wyoming.

It’s the fifth time he has planted sunflowers in memory of Max Rombouts – a child of friends Kevin and Jamie Rombouts, of Thedford – who died in June 2019 at age two after battling leukemia.

Schoonjans has invited the public to visit the farm, 5023 Douglas Line, each year to enjoy the sunflowers, take photos and leave donations for Miracle Max’s Minions, a project supporting children’s health charities.

“They’re getting close,” he said about this year’s sunflowers at his farm. “I could say the field is 50 per cent in bloom and people are basically welcome to come any time. Probably by the weekend they should be in full bloom.”

Following this year’s crop, Schoonjans said they will plant the field in hay and give the soil a few years’ rest from growing sunflowers.

“People are very welcome to take as many flowers from our field as they’d like” since there aren’t plans to harvest the crop this year, he said.

The three hearts are like three dots indicating “to be continued,” he said.

“I think we’ll always have sunflowers somewhere,” Schoonjans said.

In the years since the project began, other farms have joined Miracle Max’s Minions by planting sunflowers and collecting donations.

“We’re nearing $400,000,” Schoonjans said.

They didn’t expect to collect that much when the project began, he said.

“It’s definitely a seed that was planted that grew into something bigger than we could have ever imagined.”

A main focus of the fundraising supports a Childcan parking pass program known as “Max’s Pass,” at Southwestern Ontario hospitals for families with terminally ill children.

It also has supported cancer research.

Schoonjans anticipates the coming two weekends will have the best blooms in the field at his farm.

“The field is quite variable, so I think we’re going to have waves of blooms,” instead of the whole field blooming at once, he said.

There is a donation bucket in the laneway where visitors park.

Information about Miracle Max’s Minions can be found at its facebook page.

The project has evolved into more than sunflowers in the years since it began, Schoonjans said.

Hockey and golf tournaments, as well as other fundraisers, have supported it, he said.

Along with Schoonjans’ farm, Sipkins Nurseries on London Line has a patch of sunflowers again this year and the Rogers’ farm on Highway 21 near Kettle Point is taking donations again at its sunflower field.

The sunflowers at the Rogers’ field will be harvested so visitors are asked not to pick any. It’s “pictures only,” Schoonjans said.

Schoonjans said his field of sunflowers “struggled” this year. The ground was hard and dry when they were planted.

“It stayed hot and dry for like a month” and the sunflowers “didn’t grow much, so they’re shorter,” he said.

They are nearly waist-high in some areas of the field and about knee-high in others.

“But they’re still putting a good flower on,” Schoonjans said.

The three hearts were carved into the sunflower field and the ground there covered in straw so visitors can sit down to have photos taken, he said.

The goal of the project has always been to honor their memories of Max, whose “sunny face” reminded Schoonjans of sunflowers.

“Raising a bit of money was just going to be a side benefit,” he said.

“Our goals was to make sure Max’s spirit and name wasn’t forgotten.”

[email protected]

twitter.com/ObserverPaulM