Article published May 9, 2008
Farm Rescue list includes six S.D. families in 2008

2008-05-09 Farm Rescue, a North Dakota-based nonprofit organization, provides planting and harvesting assistance to farm families that have experienced a major illness, injury or natural disaster.

Qualifying farmers may be eligible to have their agricultural land planted or harvested free of charge.

Farm Rescue is scheduled help 28 families plant this spring, including six from South Dakota. That's double the 14 farms planted last year, said president Bill Gross.

Photos Bill's upload 04-28-2008 081.jpg The South Dakota families are:

· Damian and Martha Kappenman of rural Hosmer, whose farmstead was leveled by a tornado.

· Two families affected by cancer treatments, one from Eureka and the other from Trail City.

· A farmer from Frankfort who was left blind in one eye and is undergoing facial reconstruction after being kicked in the face by a horse.

· A farmer from Carpenter whose wife was left paralyzed by a viral infection.

· A farmer from Florence undergoing heart surgery.

Twenty North Dakota families and two Minnesota families are also scheduled for planting assistance.

"There are fewer family farms and fewer children on those farms, so when a major crisis happens, it's harder for neighbors to help one another," said Gross, who founded Farm Rescue in 2006. "We started this organization just to help them through the year so they can continue on with their livelihood."

Farm Rescue does not distribute funds to farmers. Tax-deductible donations are used to pay for the expenses associated with planting and harvesting crops. Labor for operating the equipment is provided by Farm Rescue volunteers.

Farm Rescue has about 50 regular volunteers, and they come from all over the country, Gross said. For example, volunteers this week at the Kappenman farm near Hosmer hailed from Montana, Kansas and New Jersey, Gross said.

Seventy-one-year-old Smokey Wright, who helped plant the Dick and Peggy Olson farm in rural Ellendale, N.D., this week, farmed north of Minot, N.D., for more than 40 years. When he retired two years ago, he started volunteering with Farm Rescue. He's helped on more than 20 farms so far, Gross said.

"I saw this opportunity to come out and have fun and also help people who needed help more than I did, and I've met some nice people that way," Wright said.

Major area sponsors of Farm Rescue include RDO Equipment Co., South Dakota Wheat Growers, North Central Farmers Elevator, Dacotah Bank, Wal-Mart, Farm Credit Services and Lamar Outdoor Advertising.

See Stories on Page 135F.

Applications are now being taken for

harvesting assistance, Gross said.

To find an application, make a donation, volunteer to help or learn more about Farm Rescue, visit www.farmrescue.org or call (701) 252-2017.