My high school tennis coach is not going to believe that I played tennis in Wimbledon! Unfortunately, it wasn’t THAT Wimbledon but rather the one in ND. Actually, the one in ND is the only incorporated Wimbledon in the world. And I played tennis there and got a shirt that says, “I played tennis at Wimbledon.”
It reminded me of a friend who was a college president who talked of opening colleges at Harvard, Yale and Princeton, IL. His plan was to market these colleges to wealthy international families who could boost of having sent their children to school in the USA at famous named colleges.
It never happened, but I’m convinced that Wimbledon has an opportunity to work cooperatively with larger Valley City to get people out to the town, take their photo on the local tennis courts and then sell them a t-shirt like what I was presented.
Wimbledon has 237 residents and 70 of them showed up for my talk, the highest percentage that I’ve ever gotten from anywhere in the USA. It showed me how much the citizens were looking for some ideas on what they could do to revitalize their town.
The community has taken some body blows in the last several years. The local elevator was shut down four years ago between Christmas and New Years. Dozens of farmers who were to receive payment for their grain after the first of the year never got paid. Dwaine Huber, a former teacher, insurance agent and local mover and shaker was convicted of USDA payment limitations fraud and sentenced to five years in prison. The café is closed and the elderly owner of the grocery store is talking of closing his store this fall.
But with all of the bad things that have happened in the town I found people upbeat and receptive to looking at what they can do to improve their lot.
Dick & Linda Grotberg, area farmers hosted me at their farm guest house. They were an entertaining couple that used to have a 5,000 head farrow-to-finish hog operation but today have refocused their efforts upon developing a sustainable farming model that they hope to share with others. They are doing pasture raised poultry, hormone free beef and other sustainable activities.
I plan to subscribe to the Wimbledon Newsletter and follow what this small town does to reinvent themselves. Stay tuned to future updates.
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1 comment:
Just saying hello and that I enjoyed reading your article. I'm currently a student at MSUM in Moorhead, MN but I grew up on a farm a few miles outside of Wimbledon (the Grotbergs are actually my neighbors) and went to school there for the whole 13 years as well. I too own an "I played tennis in Wimbledon" t-shirt! I was just messing around online and stumbled across your blog; it's always interesting to see something posted involving your home town of 230 people, so I thought I had to reply. Thanks for posting =)
Casey M.
caseyj_83@hotmail.com
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