Page 105 - 2022 Sustainability Report

COMMUNITY WELL-BEING

Iowa Quarry’s Limestone Donation Helps Rehab
Ballfield at Veterans Home

The team at the Central Division’s Ferguson Quarry helped bring smiles to sports fans of all ages earlier this year. And all it
took was some crushed limestone. Benefitting most from the material donation are the veterans at the Iowa Veterans
Home (IVH), a facility in Marshalltown that houses more than 500 aging veterans and their spouses.

The fifth largest state-run home for veterans in the nation, the site just northeast of Des Moines covers more than 150
acres and requires significant effort to maintain during an average year. During the pandemic, at least one piece of the
property, a ballfield, fell into disrepair. Catching wind of this, Brooks Dechant, a local Navy veteran and a member of the
Quaker Oats VALOR Group, spearheaded an effort to help. On his list of groups to call for assistance was the local Martin
Marietta quarry.

After speaking with Dechant, the Ferguson Quarry team pledged 150 tons of agricultural lime to help revitalize the field.
The material was used to create a new, even and safe surface for the baseball diamond’s infield.

The infield of the baseball diamond at the Iowa Veterans Home was rehabilitated earlier this year using 150 ton
of Martin Marietta aglime.

“This field has a strong place in Marshalltown’s history,” said Lisa Tichy, weighmaster at Ferguson. “It’s meant to provide
the residents of the IVH a place where they can enjoy time outside and interact with their community.”

On a single day in July, a group of volunteers led by Dechant and the VALOR group made the field playable again, laying
down the new infield and working to fix fences and the field’s foul poles. Other improvements followed, and by mid-
September, the IVH field (also known as Valor Field) was host to a round-robin tournament involving three local youth
baseball teams.

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