Photo by Deb Gau Dan Alexander said it was “very humbling” to see community members volunteer to help the Alexander family harvest corn this week near Vesta. Dan’s father Bob Alexander was hospitalized after being seriously injured in a farm accident Oct. 4.

BELVIEW — Friends and neighbors rallied around an area family this week, after rural Belview resident Bob Alexander was seriously hurt in a farm accident.

Over the past two days, community members came together help harvest the Alexander family’s corn, and provide food for the volunteers.

“We have over 40 or 50 people here today, working,” Jeremy Dolan said Wednesday, as combines and wagons moved across a field south of Minnesota Highway 19 in Vesta Township.

“I would just like to thank everyone. This is amazing,” said Bob Alexander’s son Dan Alexander.

Volunteers harvested a total 850 acres of corn on Tuesday and Wednesday, said Dolan, who was helping coordinate workers. Volunteers would also be doing some tillage work on Thursday, he said.

Volunteers in combines, wagons and grain trucks were all at work in fields east of Vesta. Two or more combines could often be seen working in the same field, making the harvest go faster.

The community’s help was a relief for the Alexander family, Dan Alexander said. He and Bob were going to start their corn harvest, when Bob was accidentally run over by a tractor on Oct. 4.

Bob was transported to North Memorial hospital in Robbinsdale, where he underwent surgery and was placed in intensive care, Dan said.

“He had seven broken ribs. He had three plates put in,” Alexander said. Bob also had a broken sternum, shoulder and collarbone, a collapsed lung and injuries to his face, Alexander and Dolan said.

“He was in the ICU until this Monday,” Alexander said.

However, Dan said his father was improving, and was now awake and communicating with the family. Bob started out by being able to communicate with family members by pointing at letters on a board, and then progressed to writing and speaking.

“He just called my mom this morning,” Alexander said Wednesday.

It has helped to see that Bob’s starting to recover, Dan said.

“It could’ve easily gone the other way, and it hasn’t,” he said.

Jeremy Dolan said he wanted to do something to help the Alexander family.

“I’ve known Dan for about 10 years. He’s on the (Vesta) Fire Department with me,” Dolan said. Dolan offered to take on the task of harvesting, so Dan and his family could focus on Bob. “Harvest is a big responsibility, and he’s got his dad to worry about,” Dolan said.

At first, Dolan said he was ready to do the harvest work himself if he had to. But it wasn’t long before other area residents started offering to help without being asked, he said.

“People just started pouring in,” he said. “It’s friends and family, and neighbors in the area.” Groups of farmers and area residents all came together to help. Vesta area women and church groups volunteered to make meals and bring them out to the workers in the fields at lunchtime, Dolan said.

Coordinating all the different volunteers meant fielding hundreds of phone calls over the past couple of weeks, Dolan said. On Tuesday and Wednesday, he was busy communicating with volunteers over a headset.

Although helping harvest the Alexanders’ fields was a big task, volunteers made fast progress. Dolan estimated they finished 850 acres in 12 hours, split between Tuesday and Wednesday.

Dan Alexander said he and his family were thankful for the community’s help.

“It’s very humbling,” he said.