Rural community rallies around Ind. family that lost child, helps finish 110-acre corn harvest

Connersville, Ind.
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A rural community in Indiana recently joined together to help a farming family in need, Darrell Smith reports for the Connersville News Examiner. Steve and Carmen Wollyung, whose 4-year-old granddaughter died in a farming accident on Nov. 5, were left struggling to come up with money for the funeral costs, while also needing to finish harvesting more than 110 acres of corn.

Friends and neighbors started a Go Fund Me account to pay for funeral expenses, raising more than $20,000, Smith writes. Also, volunteers from throughout the community began arriving at the farm on Nov. 12 in combines, semi-trucks, pickup trucks and grain carts to help the Wollyungs finish the harvest, completing the task in one day.

More than 60 people from several counties offered to donate their time and equipment, Kylee Wierks reports for Fox 59 in Indianapolis. Steve Wollyung told Wierks, “I couldn’t believe it when I saw everyone show up to help. All of the support and the number of people wanting to help is just overwhelming. It was emotional to see everyone. Whatever we needed, they brought.”

He said he hopes sharing his story will help save lives, Wierks writes. He told Wierks, “We’re hoping this tragedy will help others down the road. Around Halloween, kids visit farms and play in corn mazes and it all looks so pretty and fun. But we need to teach them that farms are a place where serious work is done and it can be dangerous.”