Alberta farmer Don Gilham is overwhelmed by the community’s response to a charity benefit held in his honour, but not surprised.
“What a testament to country living and the area we’re living in; it was just beyond belief,” he said from his room in Calgary’s Foothills Hospital.
Gilham has resided there since a September collision with a grain truck on a road by his home near Bindloss rendered him a quadriplegic.
Heide Bowyer, Gilham’s neighbour and an organizer of the benefit held last month in Empress, Alta., said there was an outpouring of generosity from people across a wide area, which stretched from Jenner and Buffalo, to Czar and Medicine Hat, to Oyen and Acadia Valley and included donations of food, auction items and services.
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“Everyone came together and did what had to be done,” she said. “It just made you feel so good being able to help.”
The event, which drew more than 500 people and raised more than $60,000, included an auction, hockey games, curling bonspiel, concession and banquet and dance.
Jeff, one of Gilham’s three adult children, continued to operate the farm and harvested last fall’s crop with the help of neighbours.
Don and his wife Carol are exploring renovations to their farm home to allow him to return and maintain his farm and 140 head cow-calf operation.
His goal is to operate the farm until 2011, the 100th year the farm will have been farmed by his family.
