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40 neighbors and friends gathered together to help Carl Bates harvest 450 acres of corn. Photos and courtesy of Rumbold & Kuhn, Pioneer, Yargher Machinery Sales, Roger Luft & Jason Bates.

40 neighbors and friends gathered together to help Carl Bates harvest 450 acres of corn. Photos and courtesy of Rumbold & Kuhn, Pioneer, Yargher Machinery Sales, Roger Luft & Jason Bates.

40 neighbors and friends gathered together to help Carl Bates harvest 450 acres of corn. Photos and courtesy of Rumbold & Kuhn, Pioneer, Yargher Machinery Sales, Roger Luft & Jason Bates.

40 neighbors and friends gathered together to help Carl Bates harvest 450 acres of corn. Photos and courtesy of Rumbold & Kuhn, Pioneer, Yargher Machinery Sales, Roger Luft & Jason Bates.

40 neighbors and friends gathered together to help Carl Bates harvest 450 acres of corn. Photos and courtesy of Rumbold & Kuhn, Pioneer, Yargher Machinery Sales, Roger Luft & Jason Bates.

40 neighbors and friends gathered together to help Carl Bates harvest 450 acres of corn. Photos and courtesy of Rumbold & Kuhn, Pioneer, Yargher Machinery Sales, Roger Luft & Jason Bates.

40 neighbors and friends gathered together to help Carl Bates harvest 450 acres of corn. Photos and courtesy of Rumbold & Kuhn, Pioneer, Yargher Machinery Sales, Roger Luft & Jason Bates.

40 neighbors and friends gathered together to help Carl Bates harvest 450 acres of corn. Photos and courtesy of Rumbold & Kuhn, Pioneer, Yargher Machinery Sales, Roger Luft & Jason Bates.

40 neighbors and friends gathered together to help Carl Bates harvest 450 acres of corn. Photos and courtesy of Rumbold & Kuhn, Pioneer, Yargher Machinery Sales, Roger Luft & Jason Bates.

40 neighbors and friends gathered together to help Carl Bates harvest 450 acres of corn. Photos and courtesy of Rumbold & Kuhn, Pioneer, Yargher Machinery Sales, Roger Luft & Jason Bates.

40 neighbors and friends gathered together to help Carl Bates harvest 450 acres of corn. Photos and courtesy of Rumbold & Kuhn, Pioneer, Yargher Machinery Sales, Roger Luft & Jason Bates.

40 neighbors and friends gathered together to help Carl Bates harvest 450 acres of corn. Photos and courtesy of Rumbold & Kuhn, Pioneer, Yargher Machinery Sales, Roger Luft & Jason Bates.

40 neighbors and friends gathered together to help Carl Bates harvest 450 acres of corn. Photos and courtesy of Rumbold & Kuhn, Pioneer, Yargher Machinery Sales, Roger Luft & Jason Bates.

40 neighbors and friends gathered together to help Carl Bates harvest 450 acres of corn. Photos and courtesy of Rumbold & Kuhn, Pioneer, Yargher Machinery Sales, Roger Luft & Jason Bates.

GALVA, Ill. (October 7, 2015) – An Illinois community came together to help a man with terminal cancer harvest 450 acres of corn.

Jason Bates writes in a lengthy Facebook post that his cousin Carl Bates has terminal cancer and doesn’t have much time left to live. With his health failing, Carl’s cousin Dan Bates began to wonder how Carl would harvest his 450 acres of corn.

Dan spoke with some of Carl’s neighbors, and Dan says, “it all just exploded from there.”

On Friday, September 25th, 40 neighbors and friends showed up at Carl’s farm to help him reap his harvest.

They used 10 combines, 12 grain carts, and 16 semi-trucks to harvest all 450 acres of Carl’s farm in 10 hours. According to Jason, the same amount of work normally takes an entire week!

Fortunately, Carl was feeling strong enough to go outside and thank all of his neighbors for donating their time and money to help.

“(Carl Bates’ family) has so much going on right now, with medical bills and the condition he’s in,” said Dan. “This is one less thing they have to worry about. If they need to sell (the corn) to pay bills, it’s done. They can now worry about Carl and take care of him.”

Jason says Carl is currently in hospice at home.

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