{"id":5215,"date":"2019-09-09T12:57:13","date_gmt":"2019-09-09T16:57:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/?p=5215"},"modified":"2019-09-09T15:33:02","modified_gmt":"2019-09-09T19:33:02","slug":"have-you-been-to-miracle-maxs-minions-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/blogs\/afternoons\/2019\/09\/have-you-been-to-miracle-maxs-minions-yet\/","title":{"rendered":"Have You Been To Miracle Max’s Minions Yet?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I knew I had to go.<\/p>\n

On Sunday afternoon, I took my girls,\u00a0 hopped it the car, and ventured out to the Forest area to see the field of sunflowers that has everybody talking, and posting about on social media.<\/p>\n

Miracle Max’s Minions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A field of sunflowers by itself is pretty remarkable.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

But, when that field of sunflowers is done in memory of a two year old boy named Max<\/strong>, who spent his two short years in life fighting to live – that field takes on a very special, very powerful, very emotional new meaning.<\/p>\n

Brian Schoonjans\u2019<\/strong>\u00a0and his sons planted 2.4 hectares (six acres) of sunflowers in the spring, in memory of Max Rombouts of Thedford, who died earlier this year after battling leukemia.\u00a0 It was to remember Max and collect donations Max’s parents could give to the charity of their choice.<\/p>\n

From what he says, he’s surprised they grew at all.\u00a0 It was so hot and dry.<\/p>\n

But they certainly grew.\u00a0 Maybe they had a helping hand. (smile)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

As we drove close, the bright yellow caught our attention.\u00a0 It was even bigger than I ever imagined.<\/p>\n

Bright, and beautiful.\u00a0 So many sunflowers!<\/p>\n

I was a bit surprised by the emotion I felt as I saw the enormity of the field.\u00a0 And for a cloudy and cool Sunday afternoon, I was amazed at the amount of people that were there.<\/p>\n

A celebration of a little boy.\u00a0A celebration of life.<\/p>\n

Pretty amazing to be part of.<\/p>\n

A few sunflowers I noticed were decorated, with a ball cap and sunglasses.\u00a0 You couldn’t help but smile.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This is what community does.\u00a0 They support each other in the toughest of times.\u00a0 They grieve together, and remember together. Celebrate and comfort.<\/p>\n

I can only imagine the healing and comfort they must get from that field of sunflowers. The smiles they bring to so many faces.<\/p>\n

Brian Schoonjans\u2019 is the man who planted the sunflowers, with his sons.\u00a0 Their farm is on Douglas Line near Forest.<\/p>\n

My daughter goes to school with his step daughter . Small world.\u00a0 They took a few pictures together, and then we met\u00a0 one of Max’s big brothers.\u00a0 All smiles.\u00a0 Eager to take pictures in the field of sunflowers to remember his brother.<\/p>\n

It was an incredible moment.<\/p>\n

If you can, go see Miracle Max’s Minions. You can take pictures, and even take home a sunflower or two for a donation.<\/p>\n

My best advice if you’re going – don’t follow your GPS.\u00a0 (smile)<\/p>\n

Bridge repair work has many detours in place.\u00a0 Take the 402 or Highway 7 to the Forest cutoff.\u00a0 Follow to Douglas Line – it will be on your left.<\/p>\n

And be prepared for bees!\u00a0 There are a lot of them.<\/p>\n

It was truly special to be a part of it.<\/p>\n

What an incredible thing to do to help a family heal.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I knew I had to go. On Sunday afternoon, I took my girls,\u00a0 hopped it the car, and ventured out to the Forest area to see the field of sunflowers that has everybody talking, and posting about on social media. Miracle Max’s Minions. A field of sunflowers by itself is pretty remarkable. But, when that","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":5220,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"featured_img_display":"Yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[3241,1538,3237,2530,3238,3239,3235,3236,3240],"class_list":["post-5215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-afternoons","tag-brian-schoonjans","tag-cancer","tag-charity","tag-forest","tag-leukemia","tag-max-rombouts","tag-miracle-maxs-minions","tag-sunflowers","tag-thedford"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-29 17:59:16","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"react_link":"https:\/\/foxfm.com\/blogs\/afternoons\/2019\/09\/have-you-been-to-miracle-maxs-minions-yet\/","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5215"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5233,"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5215\/revisions\/5233"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}