Neighbors Rally To Help Farmer

When 57-year-old Lane Unhjem suffered a heart attack while trying to put out a fire on his farm, he never imagined how quickly his rural community would rally to help him. One of his combines, which harvest crops, caught fire while he was working his farm in Crosby, North Dakota. Unjjem had a heart attack while working to put it out and was airlifted to Trinity Medical Center in Minot, North Dakota where he is in critical condition.

Close family friend, Jenna Binde, wanted to organize a group to help out on the farm while Unhjem was recovering. Binde and two local farmers began to organize a harvesting event, but she actually had to do very little to rally the troops. Farmers started calling and asking if they could help,” she said. “Within two hours of him being flown out of Crosby, I had over half the equipment and people already lined up.”

Binde said locals who knew she was close to the Unhjem family reached out to her — she never had to call anyone herself. On September 12, 60 volunteers showed up to the Unhjem farm, bringing 11 combines, six grain carts and 15 semis with them. “We live in a pretty rural area, so anyone within 10 miles can be considered a neighbor. Most were within 10 miles but others traveled farther than that because they are good friends with the Unhjems and wanted to pitch in.”

Most of the volunteers were farmers or their farm hands, she said. Unhjem already had his peas harvested before his heart attack but the group spent over seven hours on his durum wheat and canola crops. “The volunteers that came that day did more than just volunteer their time. They all had their own fields to still harvest but they selflessly put that behind them and made the Unhjems a priority that day.” Binde said. “The family is super thankful and it saved them a lot of headache and frustration of trying to figure out how they would get their crops off without Lane or a combine,” she said. “It was a pretty remarkable day and I was so happy to be a part of it.”

Binde said she didn’t think the gesture was a big deal. “This is just what we do around here when someone in our community is in need of help. What seems completely normal and natural to us here, unfortunately isn’t the case across the nation. I hope others read this story and forget about all the turmoil going on currently and just remember to lend a hand when needed and expect nothing in return. If we could all just do that, we’d be in a better place.”