ELK POINT – It was a perfect October afternoon with bright sun and brisk south winds as two huge combines pulled into the Acres for Ice fundraiser fields on Tuesday to harvest the canola that will yield much needed funds toward replacement of the ice plant at Elk Point’s A. G. Ross Arena.
This mammoth fundraiser, the result of donated use of the land, donated seed, fertilizer, chemicals and machinery from pre-seed onward, saw more contributed help on hand to complete the harvest, with Agland St. Paul and Rocky Mountain Equipment bringing in their combines for the day, neighbouring farmer Christoph Ludlage collecting the harvested oilseed from both combines and unloading it into semitrailers brought in by Maksymec Farms, Reimer Farms and Rusylvia Transport to hauling the canola to market.
The fundraiser was well underway long before cropping season, when the Aarbo family graciously donated the use oft the land on the quarter section on Elk Point’s southwest edge and a portion of the quarter section to its east, between the Iron Horse Trail and Hwy. 646. Funds started rolling in from area residents and companies who ‘bought’ an acre of the land for the crop year, to help get the crop in the ground, even before the word spread and companies across the region joined in to assist with the very ambitious project.
Volunteers and donors continued through the season, from Farmers Day in June when Elk Point Cornerstone Co-op hosted a barbecue lunch, to harvest day itself when Murray Cochrane of Talaca Oilfield Services provided lunch for the harvest crew before they headed to the field and Redneck Ag made sure everyone stayed hydrated with a jumbo cooler of bottled water for the barbecue supper.
Representatives of some of those companies were among the large crowd that filled the tables lined up along the former Robertson building for that windup barbecue provided and prepared by Agland staff, with diners stuffing a donation box with more contributions to the ice plant project. One major donation came right at the end of the barbecue, as Jeff and Amber Hughes presenting the A. G. Ross Fundraising Committee with a $3,000 cheque toward the upgrade.
