Ag teachers organize hay donation for flood victims

PONTIAC, Ill. — Two central Illinois agriculture teachers already had plenty on their plates as they watched and listened to the news.

As Liz Harris prepared herself and her students at Normal Community High School for the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis, she was watching coverage of the devastating flooding in the last week of September in Tennessee and North Carolina caused by Hurricane Helene.

FFA adviser Jesse Faber was busy at Pontiac High School, too. Along with his preparations for the National FFA Convention, he and his family were getting ready to attend the World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin.

As Harris watched the coverage of the floods and the devastation, she knew that farmers and their families were among those impacted by the catastrophic flooding. So, she and Faber decided to see if they could help.

“When we first started this, we didn’t know exactly how it would go. We just knew we needed to do something,” Harris said.

What that turned out to be were multiple, massive loads of hay, as well as a financial donation that went directly to the farmers and families in east Tennessee who suffered loss due to the Helene floods.

Even as they knew they had to do something, Faber and Harris also knew they wanted to help in a way that would directly affect farmers who had been impacted by the flooding and that would get those farmers help that wasn’t already being provided.

“We wanted to make contact with people on the ground to make sure that whatever we were able to provide was something they would actually need,” Harris said.

Faber contacted another ag teacher, Buddy Crass, who is the agriculture teacher and FFA adviser at Northview Senior Academy in Sevier County in Kodak, Tennessee.

“He said the one thing I think we are going to be in trouble on, that we can’t get, is hay. He said if we had any way to get hay in their direction, they would very much appreciate it,” Faber said.

With that in mind, Faber got to work and got on the phone.

“I reached out to some folks in the Pontiac area who have big hearts and a lot of enthusiasm to do something like this. I asked if they were on board and we started putting it together,” he said.

Organizing the donation, collection and transportation of multiple tons of hay, in varying shapes and sizes of bales, from central Illinois to eastern Tennessee, was in itself a big job.

“We were trying to organize trucking before we knew how much hay we had. Then once we found out we had more trucks, then we wanted to fill up the load,” Faber said.

Transportation donations came in from farms and agribusinesses throughout central Illinois, including Stoller International, Schneider Trucking, S&S Chemical, Siegel Farms and Mackinson Dairy Farm.

As word of the donation spread, donations of hay and money rolled in.

“I had people who mentioned, ‘We were blessed with an amazing hay crop this year — this just makes sense to do,’” Faber said.

“We had someone who drove down from Wisconsin to bring us hay. Folks donated money. We had trucks and trailers that were committed.”

At the start of the project, the two teachers also wanted to make sure that anyone who wanted to donate, whether it was hay or cash, could do so in the way that was easiest for the donor.

“One of the overarching goals of this was to make it easy for people who wanted to help and to do whatever we could for people so they could help in whatever way was best suited for them,” Faber said.

That meant going around to farms in the area to pick up hay. Those who were able delivered their hay to the Livingston County Fairgrounds.

“Some of the FFA members went out and collected some of the hay. People brought some to the farm. I took a trailer and made a couple of trips to pick up hay,” Faber said.

“We had donors who brought their hay to the fairgrounds. If they called and said we want to donate, but we don’t have a way to get it there, we tried to make that work. If they were able to get it there, that was good, too.”

Faber knows what it means to be affected by a natural disaster. In June 2015, the Faber family farm near Sublette, in Lee County, was damaged by an EF-2 tornado.

A year later, in June 2016, Faber’s home in Pontiac sustained damage from an EF-2 tornado.

“There are people who end up in circumstances that they could never imagine. There are people who end up in situations that are beyond their wildest dreams,” Faber said.

“As someone who has been impacted by natural disasters, I know that you are in shock and you don’t even know where to start. Then when people start showing up to help, all of a sudden it changes your perspective on the situation.”

The hay was delivered in two trips. Faber made the first trip, along with Mitch Miller, Darrin Sass and Matt Snyder, in early November.

“We ended up with about 84 round bales and another 20 big squares and then the semi had 540 small squares,” Faber said.

Loading the hay for the trip to Tennessee also proved to be a challenge.

“The bales were all a little bit different. If you’re hauling for yourself, they are probably coming out of the same baler and they’re consistent. We had a wide variety of sizes,” Faber said.

“We had a great crew who helped us load in Pontiac. They didn’t join us for the trip down, but they were really instrumental in helping us get everything loaded and strapped.

“Jason Bunting, our state representative, was there to help load. He moves hay of different sizes, and he and his brother, Chris, helped us get the bales loaded and strapped.”

The first trip included two semis and two trucks with gooseneck trailers loaded with hay. Another semi of square bales went a week later.

The reason for the donation project served as a learning experience for students.

“They are a long ways from it, and for a lot of them, they don’t understand the topography and how that area is so much different than what we are used to in central Illinois,” Faber said.

“They wanted to look up maps of the area and that led to a discussion about what it’s like to live and farm in a different part of the country and what this event actually was and that was valuable for them.”

Faber and Harris said the project was another reminder of the cooperation that exists in the ag education and FFA communities.

“As we all know, with anything within FFA, if there’s one chapter who’s involved in something, everybody will jump in and help,” Harris said.