Area
farm helped out by Farm Rescue organization
Posted: Monday, May
19th, 2008
CARPENTER — Terry and
Stephanie Wicks of Carpenter were given a much-needed shot in the arm in
catching up on their field planting this week with the arrival of four families
with the Farm Rescue organization of Jamestown, N.D.
Bill Gross, of Cleveland, N.D., president of the organization, said he
and three other families came to the Wicks farm to plant 750 acres of soybeans.
Farm Rescue, now three years old, is an organization that gives farm
families in crisis some assistance.
For the Wicks family, Stephanie was diagnosed with transverse myelitis
last February in Huron. She was in the hospital for one day before being
transferred to Sanford Hospital in Sioux Falls.
The diagnosis left her paralyzed from the chest down. When she got to
the Sioux Falls hospital, she was hospitalized for five weeks.
She gradually got worse and doctors decided to begin the treatment.
“They took all the blood out of me and separated my blood with plasma,”
she said. “They put the blood back into my body with different plasma.”
Almost immediately, she started to get better.
But it was a long road back as she had to relearn everything through
physical therapy.
In the meantime, Terry Wicks had planted 800 acres of corn and a small
acreage of wheat.
However, the soybeans were not planted.
The Wickses heard about the Farm Rescue organization through a nurse at
the Sioux Falls hospital.
They were contacted and received, in turn, an application.
In March, they received word that the application had been accepted.
Asked what the help has meant to them, Stephanie Wicks said, “It was
pretty awesome.”
Terry said they got enough help “so I could take time out to be with my
family.”
While his wife was in the hospital, Stephanie’s mother, Jody Glanzer,
stayed at the hospital, while Terry drove back and forth from the farm.
Stephanie, who was present in the soybean field Wednesday, said she is
“getting stronger every day.”
“I got rid of the cane two weeks ago,” she said, adding she still walks
with a slight limp.
Both Terry and Stephanie are Carpenter natives, graduating from Willow
Lake High School. He got his high school diploma in 1985 and she, in 1992.
She is employed by the South Dakota Wheatgrowers, one of the sponsors
of Farm Rescue.
Terry received a degree in business education from Dakota State
University in 1989, and Stephanie attended Southeast Vocational-Technical
School, majoring in business administration and marketing.
Gross said his organization has helped 25 families since it was started
three years ago in North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota.
He said the group helped a farmer in the Frankfort area before coming
to the Wicks farm. Gene and Kay Wilson of Frankfort were assisted after he lost
his left eye when he was kicked by a horse.
They also assisted Damian and Martha Kappenman of Eureka after their
farm was destroyed by a tornado.
Dave Becking of Florence was helped after suffering a heart attack, and
Paul Streich of Nassau, Minn., was run over by a combine.
Others helping at the Wicks farm were Jack and Genita Limke of
Louisville, Ky.; Chad Hanson, of Highwood, Mont.; and Dave and Dotty Mitchell
of Brick, N.J.
Three of them are pilots with UPS Airlines.
The three major aspects of Farm Rescue are it is a 501-C3 nonprofit
organization that is operated primarily by volunteers; it does not distribute
funds to farmers; and the finances and medial records of applicants are
thoroughly screened prior to finalizing the selection process.
The selection committee volunteers are professionals with the
Department of Agriculture, North Dakota State University Extension Service,
Farm Service Agency and financial institutions which review and verify the
information on each application.
In South Dakota, Farm Rescue is sponsored by South Dakota Wheatgrowers
of Aberdeen; RDO Equipment Co. of Redfield and Aberdeen; Dakotah Bank of
Aberdeen; Kessler’s Grocery of Aberdeen; North Central Farmers Elevator,
Ipswich; and Lamar of Aberdeen.
Posted with permission from the Plainsman
Online, May 19, 2008.