The team charged with the duty of collecting $8 million for a new nursing home in Estevan got to within $100,000 of their target last week when they picked up nearly $200,000 in one fell swoop thanks to two generous donations.
This past spring, a group of producers, inspired by farmer/businessman Ray Frehlick, decided to raise a half-section of canola with the profits going directly to the Hearthstone Foundation, the committee doing the fundraising for a new Estevan Regional Nursing Home. The weather created a major challenge this year, especially during harvest, but the crop finally got into the elevator and thanks to the combined efforts of all participants, the results were a near pure-profit.
“Ray and a few team members did a little friendly persuasion work and others got involved,” said Vern Buck, spokesman for the Hearthstone committee.
The Hearthstone Harvest team ended up turning over a cheque in the amount of $97,984.07.
“It could have been as much as $101,000 except the wind blew some of it away,” said Frehlick, referring to the harvest activity that saw the crop come off in fits and starts over a three-week period.
“We’d get going for an hour or two, then rain would come, or the swaths would be blown all over,” said Mike Marr of Redhead Equipment, one of the participating companies who donated equipment, time and personnel to the task.
The second donation came from the Joe and Gloria Trobert family compact, in the amount of $100,000.
“As soon as we learned there was the opportunity to build a new nursing home, we knew we’d be making the donation. It was just a matter of when,” said Gloria in speaking with the Mercury in the family’s large workshop north of the city, where the two donations were made and followed by a lunch and social. Their family is also involved in oilfield and farming operations in the local district.
It was pointed out during the brief program that preceded the presentations that Ray and Doris Frehlick donated the land, Dwayne Frehlick provided a lot of spraying time and equipment while Redhead’s Marr put in time and company equipment for seeding and harvest along with Brian Petersen and Armel Hall. Randy Riege of Richardson Pioneer donated elevator space and ensured a quick sale of the crop. Bayer Crop Science, Monsanto and Dow Agroscience donated input chemicals and fertilizers to ensure a successful crop. Svein Bryde Trucking also chipped in to meet fuel costs.
“They caught the interest of people around the province with this effort,” said Buck, who noted some of the current nursing home residents who are former farmers, were anxious to see the crop come off.
“The needs have to be filled,” said Buck, who announced the committee had reached the $7.9 million mark.
“Thanks to all who participated in this,” said Frehlick. “There was no guarantee this was going to work and a $97,000 cheque doesn’t come around every day,” he added with a chuckle. “We have a passion to see a new nursing home built in Estevan. It is badly needed. The project must go forward.”
The senior Trobert family members were joined by their children Teresa Benning, Jody McKersie and Kevin Trobert in making their donation that was received by Hearthstone and new nursing home committee representatives Don Kindopp and Buck.
“We saw an opportunity to help. We just had to make room for this crop. The fact it had to come off over a period of three weeks posed some challenges, but it was done,” said Riege.
“It happened. It took a little after-work time and weekends. The seeding went well, the harvest not as well,” said Marr. “But the quality was just fine. Canola handles moisture well. It’s just that when the swath was down and the wind came up and blew it over, we lost some value and it slowed everything down. But when we went to check on a spraying schedule or something like that, we’d find out that Ray or Dwayne had already done it. That’s how these guys work.”
