Updates from Bret Burgener

I went to Illinois State University for four yrs and received my bachelors in Ag Production and lived in the AGR fraternity house while I was there. Then I moved back to Moweaqua and rented a house and worked on the family farm raising hogs, corn and soybeans with my Dad and brothers. I was attending First Christian Church one Sunday morning and Angela Dial walked in and sat down in the pew in front of me and that’s when I decided to ask her out. We began dating and in May of 1994 we were married ( by Jason Smith!!!). Our first home was my great-grandmother’s house where we had our first date and where our first child was born in Oct. 1995. Abigail is now 11 yrs old. We liked her so much we thought we’d try again….Brock Charles arrived in Aug. 1997! In ’98 we moved to our second home which was my Grandpa Collins’ house. There wasn’t much to do that far out in the country and before you know it, we were expecting again. Alaina was born in April 2000. She cried A LOT. Even so, life was good! After the passing of my Dad in the fall of ’99, my Mom built a new house one mile down the road from where we grew up. Labor Day weekend of 2001 we moved into my parents’ old house and we still live here today. I have served on the Board of Directors of the first producer owned packing plant in the United States which was built in Rantoul in 2003. I work mostly with the hog production side of the Burgener Farms operation which produces about 15,000 hogs annually. In addition to farming full time, I have a power washing business. We wash fleet equipment. My wife is a stay at home mom who never really stays at home. Between volunteer work, running kids and her shopping habit, she’s busy all the time……except for her spa days and daily naps! As a family we like to camp as often as we can. The kids are involved in many different activities so we spend quite a bit of time attending those events. We continue to attend FCC in Moweaqua and have served as youth sponsors for the last couple of years. In the winter Angela and I enjoy getting away someplace tropical for a vacation. That’s about it for us. Looking forward to more updates from classmates and seeing everyone at the reunion. You can contact Bret at brgnr@frontiernet.net