Garden Plain Lends a Hand

The following article appeared Tuesday, July 13, 1976 in The Wichita Eagle.  It was written by Christopher Brimer, staff writer.

Melvin and Martha Kerschen of Garden Plain found something warmer than sun-soaked Kansas soil Monday--the hearts of the people who till it.

The death of their 16 year-old son, Larry, brought the condolences and sympathy of neighbors--and action.

That sympathy-turned-action  took shape Monday afternoon as 20 tractors plowed the Kerschen farm northeast of Garden Plain.  It was a job that Larry would have performed if he hadn't died Thursday of heart cancer.

Mrs. Kerschen said the appearance of neighbors at their doorstep after Larry's funeral Monday came as a surprise.

"We were just eating dinner," she said.  "And they came up and asked to plow for us."

Mrs. Kerschen said no immediate member of the family was manning a tractor.

"They [the neighbors] wouldn't let us.  This is a gesture on their part," she said.  Mrs. Kerschen watched as the large shining disks cut into the ground and turned over the wheat stubble.

"He (Larry) sowed the wheat last year," she said.

Larry's uncle, Norbert Hampel, said this gathering of farmers and machinery was probably the largest of its kind ever in the Garden Plain area.

"It's very close knit," he said of the community.  "There's people here from St. Mary's, but its all neighbors."

Neighborliness was not limited to men perched atop tractors.  Women had prepared food for the hungry workers.  It waited in the back of a pickup truck for the break that was to be signaled by the arrival of a Co-op truck to refuel the tractors.

Melvin Kerschen said he had participated in such community efforts before, when "hardships" placed a family in need.  But he hadn't ever expected to become the beneficiary of those efforts.

He said he was touched and grateful for the work being done in a few hours would have taken him over three and a half days.

"I know what it's like now," he said.

The spirit of the afternoon was summed up by Frank Kyle.  Kyle had donated his tractor and hired man and then come to the field to make sure everything went smoothly.

"Just thought I'd help out where I could," he said.