As Pulaski County continues to deal with the aftermath of last month’s grain elevator explosion in Francesville, several dozen volunteers took part in a coordinated effort Thursday to help the Reidelbach family harvest its fields.
Farmer Tim Reidelbach was one of two people who died as a result of the explosion at the Tate and Lyle facility on September 26. This week, his family, friends, and neighbors fanned out across Pulaski County to help with the harvest.
Matt Rausch was in the fields, helping to coordinate the work. “Well, there was a little over 1,200 acres of corn left to pick, I think, as of this morning,” he said. “We started at 10 o’clock and hopefully will be done in six or seven hours, I would guess. Mainly neighbors – all neighbors for the most part – some local businesses and stuff.”
Chris Schramm volunteered to drive a semi as part of the effort. “I was glad to help,” he said. “Everybody’s pulling together to get this done. I was over by Broken Arrow and there was five trucks over there, I think. In total, we have about 80 semis, 21 combines, I believe. So we’re trying to get this pretty much knocked out today. You know all these farmers stick together. I’m not a farmer, of course, but when they needed help, everybody’s pulling together and I think that’s a great thing. So I was glad to help them out and do that.”
In addition to the tractor operators and semi drivers, Rausch estimated there were another 50 or 60 people taking part. Among those helping out were Alvin and Rana Parish. “We’re just friends with Tim and Lisa and just wanted to help out in what we could,” Alvin said.
Rana added, “[It’s] just an honor to be asked to come and help do something as special as this.”
She remembered Reidelbach as a good family guy and the best storyteller, while Rausch said that he was a good neighbor. “Really unfortunate circumstances.,” Rausch said. “[He was] really well-liked.”
In addition to those helping out in the fields and on the trucks, local churches were helping to provide meals to the volunteers. Once it was harvested, the corn was taken to a few elevators in the area, some of which were open extra hours to help with the effort.
