One North Dakota farmer received an outpour of support from his community after suffering a heart attack while working on his farm.

Lane Unjem, 57, was hard at work when one of his combines that harvests crops caught on fire. While racing to put the fire out, Unjem suffered from a heart attack and was airlifted to a local hospital where he is still recovering.

In their efforts to help support a fellow farmer during one of the most critical times of the year, family friend Jenna Binde organized a harvesting event to help harvest Unjem’s crops. Around 60 farmers reached out to Binde on their own to offer their help.

“The volunteers that came that day did more than just volunteer their time,” Binde told CBS News. “They all had their own fields to still harvest, but they selflessly put that behind them and made the Unhjems a priority that day.”
The group worked together to harvest Unhjem’s durum wheat and canola crops. A week later, another group came to help harvest his soybeans, relieving the recovering farmer of a lot of worry and stress.

Bind also said that rallying together to help Unjem was “Just kind of the farming way of life…you help your neighbor out when they need it, and don’t expect anything in return.”

The farmers spent around seven hours harvesting the 1,000 acres of crops. When they were done, they all sat down for dinner made by another group of volunteers.

“What seems completely normal and natural to us here, unfortunately, isn’t the case across the nation, Binde said. “I hope others read this story and forget about all the turmoil going on currently and just remember to lend a hand when needed and expect nothing in return. If we could all just do that, we’d be in a better place.”