Combine party

SCHLEY - On Thursday, Nov. 3, a group of neighbors got together to help Sylvester Mrachek combine the last 60 acres or so of corn after he fell and tore a tendon a few weeks prior.

Sylvester’s cousin, Walt Mrachek, and neighbor Steve Sovereign got to talking, like neighbors do, and started to organize a harvest bee. They talked to some local farmers, who jumped in to help, like neighbors do.

As it turned out, it took a crew of volunteers just three hours to finish the harvest. 

They had four combines (Loren Scheidel, Mike Mrachek, Leonard Fravel, Dave Sovereign and Sylvester’s grandson, Aaron Randak), four grain carts (Gerry Caffrey, Steve Sovereign, Perry Watt and Jerry Bina) and seven semis (Wayne Watt, Blake Murphy, Matt Daley, Eric Reicks, Wayne Vokaty, Chuck Stevenson and Gary Larson) helping. 

And you can’t have these guys doing all this work without some nourishment. Donations from CUSB Bank, McAllister’s, JoAnn Mrachek, Austin Hrdlicka and Dan Ollendick, came in for a catered meal, and the neighborhood women brought the goodies, including Therma Fitzgerald, Bev Bina, Joyce Mrachek, Cherri Caffrey, Kay Flaherty, Dory Fravel and Clara Pecinovsky. Others who went out of their way to help included Roger Hein, IAS Fuel and Homeland Grain in Lawler. 

One of the volunteers said, “It is such a humbling and warm feeling to see people helping people. We’ve had a lot of people helping us, and we are happy to return the favors.”

Mrachek said of the combine party, “I sure appreciate everything everyone did. I was amazed at all who showed up. A big thank you to them all!”

Thanks to those friends, neighbors and relatives, Mrachek can recuperate and concentrate on a speedy recovery from his fall.