Thank You, Rose Acre Farms
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
Our updated, inclusive Remington Community Park Playground is scheduled for completion in 2027, and we are so excited! Thanks to the hard work of our leadership and so many community members, the day will soon come when area families have access to a safe, welcoming space in Remington where children of all abilities can interact socially, make new friends, and play side by side with other kids.
Endless hours of research, planning, imagining, and organizing—spearheaded by Town Manager Jonathan Cripe—have brought this ambitious and important community project to life. But it is the support of our many donors and backers, contributors such as Rose Acre Farms of Seymour, Indiana, that have made our updated, inclusive park a soon-to-be reality.
“We don’t have a farm in Remington, but we have operations just north of town, and we have tight ties with the Remington community,” said Tony Wesner, CEO for Rose Acre Farms. “We have many employees from Remington, and one of our owners lives there. Two of our regional managers, Joe Shepherd and Dave Gibson—the latter, whose retirement we recently celebrated—came to me one day. They said the Town of Remington was trying to do something important for their kids and their families, and they had a need.”
As CEO of the second-largest egg producer in the United States, Wesner is faced with tough decisions and items coming across his desk daily. The request to contribute to Remington’s inclusive playground, however, was not one of those.
“Contributing to this project was an easy decision to make,” said Wesner. “We are happy to support the Town of Remington’s playground expansion. At Rose Acre Farms, we try to buy as much of our grain from local farmers and do everything we can to support local communities. Our relationships with our local communities are everything to us, and we feel that—whenever we can—it’s important for us to step up to the plate and be involved.”
Accessing opportunities for joy
Remington’s inclusive playground will feature surfacing that provides easy, safe access and equipment and options that cater to different interests and levels of ability. The expanded Remington playground will feature a rubber base, safer and more stable than traditional rubber pellets or mulch, to allow ease of movement for those in wheelchairs or using crutches. The park will be accessible and welcoming to children with disabilities, with access routes wider than 60 inches.
“I have two granddaughters, ages nine and six, and every time we drive past a playground, they want to stop and get out and play,” said Wesner. “A playground lights up a kid’s day, but some children don’t get to experience those basic opportunities. To be able to contribute to this project, and know that it’s going to allow children of all abilities to experience joy, interact and have fun with other kids, and just be able to be outside and smile—that’s a big deal, and a good thing for us to be a part of.”
According to Wesner—who began his career at Rose Acre Farms back in 1981, fixing trucks, and worked his way up—the decision to support Remington’s playground expansion aligns easily with the vision of the company founders.
“The Rust family, which founded Rose Acre Farms, are people of faith, and—as I am the CEO of a company with 2,500 employees—my biggest drive is to try and build family,” said Wesner. “We take care of our own, we look out for one another, we pick our people up—that’s our culture, and the same holds in our relationships with communities like Remington. The new playground may not seem like a big deal, but God puts us in each other’s paths for a reason, and there is no way to estimate or imagine the good that can potentially come from this project. It will help needs get met, it will result in so much joy, and it will bring parents together in fellowship.
“The Town of Remington is the kind of place where if your car breaks down there, someone is going to pull over and check on you. Someone is going to help you, someone is going to feed you, and someone is going to care enough to do whatever they can to assist you and help you on your way. It’s the Heartland, and in the Bible Belt, folks are salt of the earth, and they care about one another. When we were asked to contribute to this project, my reaction was, ‘How could we not be a part of this?’ After all, at the end of the day, the only thing you leave behind in this world is what you did for others.”
We extend our deepest thanks to Tony, the entire Rust family, and everyone at Rose Acre Farms! If YOU would like to contribute to our expanded, inclusive Remington Community Park Playground, there is still time to get involved.
Be part of our story, part of our joy, part of our future, and help us put smiles on the faces of ALL our children!
