www. HutchHealth. com Equal Opportunity Employer
BY BRIANNA MATHIAS
Injury, illness, and natural disaster can disrupt the lives of hard-working farmers, by disabling them from working on their family farms. Luckily, there is one organization that stands ready to deliver farms from such tragedy.
Farm Rescue, created by airline pilot Bill Gross, is a non-profit organization that helps families keep their farms running during times of hardship.
“ Our mission is to help out families that have faced illnesses, accidents, and natural disasters, so they are able to continue their operations,” Gross said.
This group provides planting, haying, and harvesting service for afflicted families who have either applied, or been referred to Farm Rescue for assistance.
“ Farmers are independent, and a lot of
Farm Horizons • Aug. 8, 2016 • Page 8
Angels in blue Farm Rescue aids families in times of need
‘ Seeing that we’ ve helped people, kept them out of debt, is amazing. It’ s nice knowing we’ re making an impact on farms throughout our region.’
– Bill Gross, founder Farm Rescue them don’ t want to ask for help,” Gross said.“ Half of the families are referred to us by friends or neighbors.”
Gross grew up and went to school in Cleveland, ND, a small town between Bismark and Fargo. He said he grew up on a fairly large family farm.
“ My dad had some injuries when he worked on the farm,” Gross said.“ A hired man got killed. I saw neighbors struggle with illness. We had accidents on our farm.”
Illness and injury was only one factor that inspired Gross to start this nonprofit. Back in the‘ 80s, Gross said, many farms had begun to struggle financially. His own family ended up having to sell around one-half of their cattle and a good portion of their land.
“ The public school closed down because there weren’ t enough fam-
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www. HutchHealth. com Equal Opportunity Employer