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Farmer gets help from the heart
Published Saturday, September 27, 2008
It’s tough enough to recover from quadruple bypass surgery. But when you’ve got sugarbeets to harvest, it’s an especially heavy burden. Thankfully for Mike Bergquist of rural Foxhome, he has lots of good friends and neighbors.
On Friday close to 100 volunteers accomplished in six hours what would have taken Bergquist 10 days to complete — the harvest of 230 acres of sugarbeets.
“We all know that Mike himself would have been the first person to volunteer if someone else had been in the same predicament,” said Mike Metzger, agriculturist for Wahpeton-based Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative. “It’s heartwarming to see close to a hundred volunteers giving of their time to help a fellow farmer in need.”
The monumental one-day effort was organized by Metzger and Minn-Dak shareholder John Hought. Normally, Bergquist would have labored for a 10-day period with just one sugarbeet lifter and two trucks. On Friday, workers with 14 beet lifters and 60 trucks were at the Bergquist farm.
“This is pretty darn unique, to say the least,” said Metzger, “getting this number of people together. We had a narrow window of opportunity to get this done, following Thursday morning’s rainfall and the predicted rain for later today (Friday).”
The sugarbeets were hauled to the Yaggie sugarbeet receiver station, west of Foxhome and north of Highway 210. That’s where close to 60 additional volunteers were on hand. Trucks are first weighed before the beets are taken to the pileground.
Bergquist’s wife, Patty, was at the site of the mass harvest Friday afternoon, thanking the many friends and neighbors.
“I still don’t believe what I’m seeing — with everyone coming together for a single day,” Metzger said. “Having this many beet lifters and trucks, at one site, is a once-in-a lifetime experience for many of the volunteers.”
Adding in the fact that friends and neighbors did all of this for Mike and Patty Bergquist, and not taking a single dime for their efforts, made Friday’s work evening more amazing, said Metzger.
Comments
The Daily Journal is happy to host community conversations about news and life in Fergus Falls and the surrounding area. As hosts, we expect guests will show respect for each other. That means we don't threaten or defame each other, and we keep conversations free of personal attacks. Witty is great. Abusive is not. If you think a post violates these standards, don't escalate the situation. Instead, flag the comment to alert us. We'll take action if necessary. It's not hard. This should be a place where people want to read and contribute -- a place for spirited exchanges of opinion. So those who persist with racist, defamatory or abusive postings risk losing the privilege to post at all.Posted by FFforever (anonymous) on September 27, 2008 at 8:44 a.m. (Suggest removal)
WOW, this is what warms a persons heart. With all the things going wrong these days, helping a fellow neighbor in this way is wonderful. Love your neighbor as yourself comes to mind. Cudos to you all !!!
Posted by fergusforever (anonymous) on September 27, 2008 at 8:53 a.m. (Suggest removal)
A similar situation happened to us in 1996 when our daughter was diagnosed with cancer and we were down in Mpls. Farmers from the are harvested our crops and milked our cows. You never forget this. This is what community is about. Believe me, we try HARD to pay this forward and always be there when there is a need for a helping hand. Fergus Falls is a great community for this, one of the reasons we continue to live here.
Posted by jamieann (anonymous) on September 27, 2008 at 2:22 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I'm not a farmer, but I do help combine and run tractor-seeder for a friend once a year. I am so amazed at what others can do when a fellow Farmer is down and out. My heart goes to all who have made that happen for Bergquists. If I had beet harvest experience and knew of this, I too would've been out there helping too.
Posted by Lala (anonymous) on September 27, 2008 at 10:51 p.m. (Suggest removal)
It's nice to see that we still have good hearted people out there willing to lend a helping hand. Wishing Mike a speedy recovery!!
Posted by 1125thmp (anonymous) on September 29, 2008 at 9:57 a.m. (Suggest removal)
That feeling reverberates through to so many stories from our grandparents generation. To see time has not brought destruction on all that is good and decent is a joy to see.
Posted by k8 (anonymous) on September 29, 2008 at 11:20 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Great story.
Best wishes to Mike for his recovery.
Posted by notcominghome (anonymous) on September 30, 2008 at 12:02 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I really hate to say this. Or maybe I should start with, this is a great story. many wonderful people involved.
There is still good people everywhere.
Just suprised that the daily journal did not do a background check on all involved to report any past criminal history, like that poor kid in the heartwarming lemon aide stand story.
Posted by dragonlord824 (anonymous) on October 2, 2008 at 3:15 p.m. (Suggest removal)
you know, this is what the paper should always put in. none of the stupid stuff that makes fergus falls or the area look like crap. thanks for the happy story.
Posted by fillerup (anonymous) on October 2, 2008 at 9:03 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Great story!
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