| Family History Researcher |
- Much information about this family came from Gordon and Ramona in July 200 2.
See ArticleVan Asten family makes major donation to LC windmill visitors center; By D iane Baumgart, ReporterThe Van Asten family has donated $225,000 to Little Chute Windmill, Inc. T he donation will underwrite the cost of the windmill's visitors center.The visitors center will be named the Gordon, Ramona and Michael Van Ast en Visitors Center in honor of their generous donation. Gordon and Ramo na are donating $150,000 and Michael is donating $75,000."Originally, it started with just the windmill," Mike Van Asten said. " It seemed almost a necessity to have a visitors center with it. A windmi ll can only take about a dozen people at a time (on tour). You're talki ng four or five separate windmill tours and you can't have people sitti ng on the bus. By expanding the project to have a visitors center and t he Little Chute Historical Society museum, which is going to move their ho me inside the facility, it now gives people someplace to learn about the D utch culture and history of the village."Van Asten said that a windmill in Pella, Iowa, another Dutch community th at recently constructed a windmill, had just short of one million visito rs in the first year of operation."It should be an economic boom to the downtown," Van Asten said. "I thi nk there's a number of businesses that cater to the tourism trade th at … with the construction of the windmill would make a lot of sense - gi ft shops, imported Dutch gifts, cheeses, specialty coffee shops, and a caf é."The Van Asten family has a long association with and history of servi ce to the village of Little Chute. Gordon Van Asten founded the popular Go rdy's Food Fair grocery store on Main Street, near the site where the wind mill will be built. The Food Fair was managed by the Van Asten family fr om 1961 until 1987, when Fairway Foods of Minneapolis purchased it.Michael Van Asten owns Liberty Hall Conference Center in Kimberly and t he adjacent Hilton Garden Inn Appleton/Kimberly. He serves as vice-preside nt of Little Chute Windmill, Inc. and is the secretary and a member of t he executive committee of the Fox Cities Convention & Visitors Bureau.The Little Chute windmill will rise more than 100 feet above the village d owntown landscape. The idea of constructing an authentic Dutch windmill be gan in the early 1980s as a way to commemorate Little Chute's unique Dutch -American heritage. The project gathered momentum with the formation of Li ttle Chute Windmill, Inc., led by former village president Donald DeGroo t.Little Chute Windmill, Inc. is currently working to raise the $2.5 milli on needed to construct and maintain the windmill project. Mike Van Asten s aid he has made dozens of presentations to large corporations and small bu sinesses as well as to individuals seeking funding."I did feel making the lead gift would certainly get the momentum going a nd encourage others in the community to get involved as well," Van Asten s aid of the family's donation, adding that currently, there are pledges app roaching a half million dollars.The Little Chute Windmill Committee hired Lucas Verbij, a Hollander, to bu ild the working windmill that will grind grain, which will in turn be us ed by other businesses.The functional, working windmill will attract tourists and school groups f rom a wide region, hastening the development of Little Chute's recently re furbished Main Street and stimulating the entire local economy.In addition to the visitors center and museum, Windmill Park will inclu de an educational center for children, meetings rooms, flower gardens a nd an orchard filled with Dutch tulips as well as a brick walk winding thr ough the park
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1930 - 2025 (95 years)
Tombstone
