Eloise Ogden/MDN Bill Gross, founder and president of Farm Rescue shown in Minot on Friday, will be the grand marshal of today’s North Dakota State Fair Parade.

“I think it’s a great honor,” said Bill Gross, Farm Rescue founder and president who will be grand marshal of the North Dakota State Fair Parade today.

“The nonprofit organization I founded, Farm Rescue, truly represents the spirit of the people of North Dakota – helping one another. Farm Rescue is a helping hand, it’s not a handout to anyone,” he said in an interview on Friday.

“The theme for the parade this year, ‘Salute to Agriculture’ is very fitting, given the backbone of our state is agriculture and the good hardworking independent people that are involved in agriculture. I’m humbled to be asked to be the grand marshal for the parade,” he said.

Gross will be one of the first lead units in the parade driving a John Deere 9620R tractor from Gooseneck Implement in Minot, a company sponsoring equipment for Farm Rescue. A combine that Gooseneck also sponsors for Farm Rescue will be in the parade and a pickup truck sponsored by Ryan Chevrolet in Minot. Gooseneck Implement and Ryan Chevrolet are among many Farm Rescue sponsors in the local area.

Many Farm Rescue volunteers will be in the parade – those who help with the field operations and other local volunteers helping just with the parade including about a dozen people from the local UPS.

Farm Rescue volunteers in the parade include those from out of state who are in North Dakota helping with the organization’s haying operation and getting harvesting equipment ready for that operation. The organization will start harvesting around Aug. 5, he said.

He said some farm families that Farm Rescue has assisted will be walking in the parade.

A Boeing 747 captain for UPS Airlines, Gross flies all around the world, mostly to Dubai, Australia, Hong Kong and all over Europe. He lives in Anchorage, Alaska, with his wife and 18-month-old son. But he’s always in touch with Farm Rescue.

Since 2006, Gross said the organization has helped more than 600 farm families. The organization started providing help to farm families in North Dakota and has expanded to five more states – South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa and Montana, with the majority of those helped from N.D., S.D. and Minnesota. “Sixty percent are right here in North Dakota,” Gross added.

What’s next for Farm Rescue?

“We’ve consistently grown in the terms of services and geographical area,” Gross said.

He said the organization started with planting and shortly after added harvesting assistance, then haying assistance and livestock feeding assistance. The organization also stepped up its disaster relief efforts such as hauling hay called Operation Haylift in times of natural disasters- floods or droughts.

“In 2017 there was a severe drought in western North Dakota. To give an example, we hauled over 300 semi loads of hay from all the surrounding states to help the ranchers in western North Dakota and then there was the flood this spring in eastern Nebraska from a dam that had broken there. We hauled over 100 semi loads of hay,” Gross said. He said most of the loads went to Nebraska and some to western Iowa where there was flooding. He said Farm Rescue is wrapping up the assistance in Nebraska and took the last loads of hay there last week.

“Those people have found that Farm Rescue, like it’s always been, is a good avenue to help other people be that in the terms of volunteering or donating financially to help us with our mission,” Gross said.

Besides financially, he said people also donate to the organization in other ways such as donating hay. “When we put the word out there were ranchers that needed hay because of the drought or the flood, we got donations of hay from all over the United States as far away as Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Montana, Colorado – all over,” he said.

“People are aware of Farm Rescue. The brand awareness of Farm Rescue has grown nationally. It’s clearly a way that people recognize and associate with being able to help farmers and ranchers,” he said.

Farm Rescue will hold its annual banquet Nov. 23 at the Clarion Hotel in Minot with a social at 5 p.m. and dinner at 6 p.m. This is the second consecutive year the banquet will be held in Minot. For more about Farm Rescue visit www.farmrescue.org.