By Sarah Stone

Seeds of hope planted for Mont St. Joseph Foundation

Jun 12, 2014 | 6:01 PM

The seeds of hope are already being planted in the minds of residents and staff at Mont St. Joseph.

On Thursday afternoon staff and five seniors from the seniors’ care home visited the Field of the Future, located at the south edge of Prince Albert. There they met with
Moker and Thompson Implements who chose the Mont St. Joseph Foundation as recipient of this year’s proceeds from the charity crop.

Jennifer White, foundation director, said she was shocked to be chosen.

“Us? Like how did we get chosen? So the awareness out in the community of our needs and our home is amazing that it’s getting out there to Moker and Thompson, so this is amazing stuff,” White said.

How they plan to spend the money once it’s donated will depend on the yield of the canola.

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“We have many needs. We’re 16 years old, just about 17 now, so lots of furniture and equipment upgrades is what we’re working on,” White said.

When White told the residents about the Field of the Future, she said they were super excited, especially because a lot of them are farmers.

Ninety-three-year-old Isabelle LaHaye was one of the residents who were on-hand on Thursday at the field.

“Well I was really happy to know that I can come here today,” LaHaye said.

Although she couldn’t decide where she would like to see the donation put she does have high hopes. “I’d like to see a good crop and hopefully we’ll have more than we thought we would have.”

This is the second year Moker and Thompson Implements have arranged Field of the Future. Last year they split $38,200 raised by a wheat crop between the Victoria Hospital and the Red River Roping and Riding Club.

 “It’s [Mont St. Joseph is] a big part of the community and we try to keep it locally and it’s a good choice,” said Arron McLean, operations manager with Moker and Thompson Implements .

Staff seeded the 200 acres of canola almost two weeks ago and he said it’s already sprouting. “It’s already up nice and green through the rows. It looks really good, so I think we can have a good crop this year.”

“Last year was the first year, so we had a lot of learning curves. This year we’re going to be a little bit more organized … everybody that we asked for help has been a phenomenal support,” he added.

Some of the support he talks about comes in the form of fuel for the machines to fertilizer. Companies getting involved include Co-op Farm Supply, Crop Production Services, Fremont Trucking, Case IH, MacDon, SeedHawk, Monsanto, Dow AgroSciences, BASF, FCC
and Markit Signs.

As for why the companies get involved, he said it’s simple.

“It’s just a lot of fun and it’s a good cause and we have the ability to I guess. We’re lucky that we can do this kind of thing and the more people that kind of take that kind of opportunity to help out in the community it’s better for us.”

McLean doesn’t know how much this crop will yield, but said it depends largely on the weather. However, he did say this variety of canola is supposed to be some of the best.

sstone@panow.com

On Twitter: @sarahstone84