Carl Bates is a farmer in Galva, Illinois. Sadly, he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. When it was time to harvest his corn in 2015, he was bedridden and simply didn’t have the ability to do so.
His family gently reached out to a few neighbors and asked if they could help harvest his 450 acres.
This is where the story becomes magical. Word quickly spread through the town and on a day in September, 40 people arrived at Carl’s farm with 10 corn combines, 12 super-sized grain carts and 16 semi trucks to give Carl a helping hand.
What normally takes Carl an entire week took the team only 10 hours to accomplish. Local businesses even pitched in to keep the volunteers fed as they worked the long hours.
Bates, extremely thankful for the generosity of his neighbors, told Today, “One of the things we’ve noticed is how great it is to see people help each other for a change as opposed to all the bad news stories out there.”
Even a year later, this story makes me feel good. As I visit my own family farm and pass others harvesting their fall crops, I can’t help but think how wonderful our community is.
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