In June, Elburn farmer Curt Meredith had things to worry about. With 2,600 acres of corn and soybeans planted, he had weather to worry about — no rain. Meredith had ordered a new $200,000-plus combine harvester that would be delivered in August. And he had a sore throat that would not go away.

In July, the sore throat suddenly became 44-year-old Meredith’s No. 1 worry. He was diagnosed July 26 with squamous cell carcinoma, a cancer of the tonsils.

As any cancer survivor can testify, at that point very little else mattered but the battle for life.

“We were in shock,” said Beth Meredith, Curt’s wife. She explained that although most throat cancer victims have a history of smoking and drinking, Meredith partook in those activities very sparingly during a few teen years, then stopped.

“It wasn’t even enough for doctors to think it had any effect on his condition,” Beth said. The Merediths researched his cancer, talked with doctors and underwent tests. Their daughters, Madeline, 12, and Angie, 16, did everything they could to help.

Chemotherapy treatments started in August and continued into September. Late that month Meredith began a new series of treatments, including radiation as well as chemotherapy, at University of Chicago Hospitals.

In the midst of this, Meredith’s crops were growing. His combine was delivered. Harvest time was drawing near.

“Curt called me and said, ‘I’m a little worried about getting it all done. Can you take care of it?’æ” said Mike Pitstick, another farmer and a friend of Meredith’s since elementary school. “I told him, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll get it done.’æ” Pitstick began working on some of Meredith’s fields. He used Meredith’s new combine to harvest 1,400 acres with the help of a couple other farmers.

As the word spread that Meredith needed help, more farmers volunteered, and somehow the idea of getting everyone together and finishing all the work in one day was born.

“It just kind of snowballed after that,” Pitstick said. “People would say, ‘Let me do this, how about I do that.’ All we did was put it on paper so nobody was running into anyone else.”

Ron Alms at the Elburn Co-op helped Pitstick organize, and Karen Cornell, Curt’s stepmother, organized food donations and other help.

On Saturday, it all came together. Beginning at 8 a.m., a total of 14 combines, 14 tractor and grain carts, and about 20 semi-trailers converged on Meredith’s fields at different locations throughout Elburn and Kaneville.

“People don’t realize how much money is out here in equipment,” said Richard Pitstick, Mike’s dad, who talked while steering an eight-row combine slowly through the corn, cobs and kernels dancing as they were sucked into the machine. He said a ballpark figure for each grouping of combine with a tractor and cart is worth close to $400,000.

“Then on top of that, we spend about $1,500 a day just in fuel,” Richard said.

And then there’s the time. Many of the farmers who helped Meredith yesterday could have been harvesting their own fields.

“They’re putting their own crop in jeopardy,” Mike Pitstick said. “A windstorm could come up, and they could lose $10,000 in a heartbeat.”

The combine shot the corn through a long tube, or auger, into a grain cart, pulled by a tractor. Once full, the tractor drove the cart to a semitrailer-truck and transferred the corn into its trailer. The trailer then drove to the Elburn Co-op where the tracks cross Meredith Road, and the corn was weighed, dried and ultimately dumped into storage silos. This happened over and over throughout the day.

At noon, sandwiches, fruit and homemade desserts were delivered to the men working the fields. At 1 p.m., all the machinery paraded with a police escort through downtown Elburn, up to the main Meredith field where routes 47 and 38 meet. Within two hours, the 300 acres there had been harvested.

One final swath was saved for all the combines to line up together, moving through the rows at once, an agricultural army of men and steel united to assist a fellow farmer in need.

“We got 820 acres done today,” said Denny Hawks, a farmer who helped. Hawks said he helped harvest the same field in 1974 when farmer Mike Jorgeson had a heart attack.

“It’s fun to do this kind of thing for people.”

It’s just totally humbling,” Beth Meredith said.

Curt Meredith was able to watch part of the work, and both he and his wife were in tears.

“This show of support, all this love — it’s overwhelming,” he said.

At a dinner provided for the workers afterward, Beth expressed her gratitude.

“Your prayers are priceless,” she said. “Words will never be enough for us to tell you how deeply we appreciate your help.”

All this happened coincidentally on national Make A Difference Day. Those who organized this event were unaware that volunteers across the country were doing projects like theirs to help others.

“We just did it that day because it’s harvest time,” Pitstick said.

Meredith’s prognosis is good, Beth said. Though her husband’s treatments have weakened him and he is in constant pain, Curt Meredith has an 80 percent chance of being cured.

“We hope by a year from now to have an ‘I Survived!’ party instead,” Beth Meredith said. “And I hope every one of you will come and help us celebrate.”

By Emily Jennings – Daily Herald Correspondent
Sunday, October 23, 2005