“I have learned that you should stop a party at its peak and that you should not continue for too long,” says Jan van der Struik of the Drentse Boermarken Association. And that moment has now arrived for him after 43 years. Van der Struik says goodbye. “When you turn 82, you have to look ahead and make sure you get good successors.”
But before he looks ahead, Van der Struik looks back in his own magazine on his 43 years at Boermarken in Drenthe. “That was of course a fun and special period,” he says in the Radio Drenthe program Cassata. “And also a period in which you were able to do many great things for the province.” Perhaps the highlight is a place on the list for intangible cultural heritage. “That has certainly been a highlight. It is a piece of appreciation to the boermarken.”
Van der Struik’s adventure with the boermarken started in 1979 with the Drents Landbouw Genootschap (DLG), the predecessor of LTO. “I worked there with Jan Hingstman. He was a real country man. He passed on that enthusiasm to me,” says Van der Struik about the beginning. “Hingstman then became chairman and I secretary.” It was important for them to bring the boermarken together. “They also thought that was important. The Boermarken wanted to get a little more ‘power’ to get more done.”
In 2016 he experienced with the list for intangible cultural heritage and now in 2022 he says goodbye. This means that 43 years of knowledge and experience will be lost, but his tasks will be taken over by three others. Van der Struik is not afraid that things will go wrong without him. “That really doesn’t fall apart. If you have laid a good foundation together, there is a solid something and something that is really anchored in society. And it will remain that way.”