I’ll never forget that.
That was a picture... perfect moment.
When Farm Rescue comes rolling in with their big tractor and planter.
And this is the crew.
Those guys drove all the way up from Iowa
to Fargo at their own expense.
You know they left their families
to come up here and help somebody they didn't even know
to get their crop in the ground.
it was like The Cavalry has shown up.
That was a pretty cool site.
Yeah.
I threw out my hand to shake Jim's hand,
and I got a big old hug.
He was grateful for us being there
and we hadn't even done anything yet.
So, in that moment, I realized
that we're not just here to lend a helping hand.
We're here to really touch a family's lives
and get them back on their feet.
It's hard to see a father in pain,
when his child's been hurt.
It drove you to wanna do more.
We were there on a mission to get their crop planted.
And, we were gonna do that at all costs.
It was about helping someone heal.
It wasn’t looking good.
I didn’t know if I could walk ever again.
I was attempting to unload some cattle panels
on top of a flat bed trailer,
and the load landed right on my back
shattering my T-12 in my spine.
For a while there, I was just down in the dumps,
and I only got outside to walk a couple of times,
and when farmer rescue showed up...
"Wow. You don't see that every day."
I didn't wanna stop being with them and hanging out with them.
They really got me moving, and got me more motivated
to just get better.
And, you saw the progression of Garrett,
he was out with us the whole time,
having fun and watching us office boys out there,
you know, getting ranchy with the cows.
Seeing Garrett smile again
was probably the best piece of it.
We connected in all sorts of ways,
and they really felt like family to me.
We developed relationships with the family
that will be there forever.
By getting to know them on that personal level,
you just wanted to work that much harder.
And when it goes to helping people in need,
this group is gonna do whatever it is
to make sure the job gets done.
We were a week or so from the deadline
for when the crop needed to be in the ground.
we planted at night every day,
because that wasn't an option.
There was one day I jumped on the tractor in the morning,
and I refused to leave it until that field was done.
There were definitely some times where we were doubting ourselves,
doubting our own abilities.
We actually saw a storm rolling in,
and I may have had 200 more yards to go
and the planter tubes were getting empty.
And, so the guys filled up three five-gallon buckets full of seed,
ran it out to us on the Gator,
and that got me just enough to get to the end of the field.
Every day I look at that crop I think of Farm Resuce,
and it reminds me to be thankful to them daily.
I’d love to, you know, help somebody else in need.
Pay it forward to the next person
because they sure helped us out.
Well, they absolutely changed our lives too.
To be able to contribute to help a family get back on their feet
and you know that they're gonna pay it forward to another family.
And you know one day that could be our family.
it's easy to say, "I'm gonna donate some money..."
but you don't always see exactly what happens,
and I was out there for a week
and I saw exactly what happened,
I saw exactly how we changed this family's life,
and I saw what they did for us too.
We got the opportunity to build relationships with the family,
we got an opportunity to build relationships
with co-workers and friends.
And the question I would ask is, what's stopping you?
If you're willing to work hard,
you're willing to get your hands dirty,
you're willing to learn,
then you can do this,
you can absolutely come out
and help a farm family in need.
The time is now.