Wired to help

Roger and Sandy Ploeger, West Des Moines, IA, are both retired from paid work, but they haven’t stopped using their talents for good. In addition to their ongoing support of Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch, they volunteer for several charities supported by their church, Gloria Day Lutheran Church in Urbandale, IA.

Roger and Sandy have financially supported the Ranch for 24 years with annual gifts, and recently contributed to both the Bismarck Chapel and Minot Zurcher Cottage campaigns. Sandy grew up in North Dakota and recalls her parents talking about the Ranch.

“We were in survival mode on the farm, but they had giving hearts, and I’m sure they contributed from time to time,” Sandy said.

Roger and Sandy both grew up going to church and Sunday School and said the values they learned stuck with them.

“We have been blessed financially, so when someone from the Ranch spoke at our church in Denison, IA, we decided to start supporting the Ranch,” Roger said. “It just seemed like the thing to do.”

Growing up in agricultural communities, Sandy and Roger both learned the value of hard work. Sandy’s family owned a small grains and dairy farm near Wahpeton, ND, where Sandy recalls walking bean fields.

“My dad was very particular,” she said, “so I walked through the fields and picked weeds. He also didn’t want rocks in the field, so I helped with that.”

Roger lived on a farm until he was eight years old when his dad bought into a John Deere dealership. When he was old enough, he worked for farmers during haying season and found other paying jobs.

“We had a small four-lane bowling alley in our town, with semi-automatic pin setters,” Roger said. “On Sunday afternoons, I would make 10 cents a line setting pins for people.”

They both graduated from college with degrees in education, Sandy from Concordia St. Paul and Roger from Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, IA, and met through a mutual friend in Denison. Sandy moved there after college to teach at a Lutheran school and Roger was working at United Parcel Service (UPS), where he spent most of his career in supervision and management at UPS delivery centers. When he took early retirement, he drove a school bus for the Denison school district for 19 years.

Sandy had a fulfilling 31-year career teaching 4th graders, first in a Lutheran school and later in the public school.

They raised their four daughters in Denison and now have five grandchildren and one great grandchild. Three of their daughters are married and live in Iowa and one daughter is a graphic artist living in Great Britain.

At ages 80 and 82, Roger and Sandy show no signs of slowing down. They are living their best lives traveling, cheering on their grandchildren, and supporting the many ministries, like the Ranch, that have captured their hearts.

The Christian foundation of the Ranch is important to the Ploegers, as is meeting the psychological needs of the kids.

Roger said, “It seems like kids have more trauma and abuse and the family unit has broken down more in this day and age. It is important to serve the psychological needs of kids, and it is important to us that the Ranch is a Christian-based ministry.”

“It breaks our heart to read that children have been neglected, and emotionally and physically abused, when they should be loved and cherished,” Sandy said. “It is heartbreaking.”

They recently made a second gift to the Zurcher Cottage campaign.

“This new cottage is very much needed to help these kids who have been abused,” Roger said. “We are required to take a minimum distribution from our IRAs every year.  Since we don’t really need the extra income, we can take a qualified charitable distribution and give it to the Ranch for the new cottage.”

In addition to their annual giving and support of the building projects, Roger and Sandy have named the Ranch as a beneficiary in their will.

“We are both wired to give,” Sandy said. “We kind of feed off each other because we both like helping people. When a need arises, we step up when we can.”