Lugging food, equipment, supplies and weeds just got more fun at Hope Village after Goose Implement and an anonymous donor teamed up to contribute a John Deere Gator.
The all-terrain vehicle, worth $12,500, has made moving items from the Food Service of America freezer to the dining tent easier and more efficient.
Sales manager Brian Fauske and marketing manger Harley Austin handed over the keys of the all-terrain vehicle to Hope Village Director Pastor Paul Krueger and Village Coordinator Steve Carbno on Tuesday. Since then, Carbno has been spotted frequently behind the wheel with a big smile on his face.
Village Coordinator Steve Carbno has been all smiles since Gooseneck Implement and an anonymous donor gave Hope Village a John Deere Gator.
An anonymous donor initiated the process by contacting Gooseneck Implement about the donation, which deals exclusively with John Deere equipment in its eight stores throughout North Dakota.
“It’s a privilege to help out,” said Fauske, who lost his own home in the flood.
Last weekend, a group of 17 second- to fourth-graders from Zion Lutheran in Bismarck traveled to Minot to lend a hand in the area’s flood recovery.
The kids toured five flooded homes, where they brought the Hope Village volunteers working there granola bars and water and then prayed for the individual homeowners.
Back at Hope Village, Carbno paired them up in a competitive litter pickup across the campus.
The winners took home Hope Village water bottles and each child took home a Summer of Hope pin and a better understanding of disaster recovery.
Gooseneck Implement, which has eight stores in North Dakota, and an anonymous benefactor donated a $12,500 John Deere Gooseneck all-terrain vehicle to Hope Village for use in its long-term flood recovery efforts.
Earlier last week, the Church of Latter-day Saints donated the use of a dump trailer valued at $8,000 to Hope Village. It will be used to haul debris from construction sites.
The Latter-day Saints also donated several shop vacs, hand trucks and generators toward the long-term recovery efforts.
Employees of the Ward County Courthouse took up a donation and raised $200, then called Carbno to ask what they could buy for Hope Village with the proceeds.
Now Hope Village volunteers have no fear of mosquitoes, because the $200 went toward a mosquito fogger and “enough propane to last long enough to cover Ward County,” according to Carbno, plus a $50 Menard’s gift card.That might be an exaggeration, but mosquitoes are now an endangered species around the campus.
So far, Hope Village has hosted 106 volunteer teams and 1,004 volunteers who have worked a total of 29,423 hours to rebuild Minot.
