Today at Woodstone of Hutchinson we made a dream come true with the help of Marsha Anderson from Equal Access and her volunteers, Elmar Howe, Glen Kadelbach, Milan Plath, Katie Knisley and Kalie Nelson.
Vern was an avid farmer and loved horses while he was on the farm. When he was asked what kind of tractor was his favorite, he said he liked all tractors but if he had to pick he would pick an International Harvester. It was Vern Dressel’s dream to see an old school International tractor along with some horses, which were his passion.
It took a team to get this pulled off. Woodstone used their resources and reached out to people in the community we knew that may have IH tractors and horses. On Wednesday we notified Vern’s family that Woodstone would be fulfilling one last dream for him this Friday at 4pm.
The horses were brought to us by Marsha Anderson from Equal Access, Katie Knisley and Kalie Nelson from Grove City.
Both International Tractors braved the cold and were driven to Woodstone by Milan Plath and Glen Kadelbach.
Elmar Howe, long time neighbor of Vern, volunteered his time playing his accordion for entertainment this afternoon knowing Vern loved polka music. Everyone enjoyed the music and popcorn while reminiscing about Vern and his wife Genie when they were members of the Kiwanis Club, and in one summer together they popped 50 pounds of popcorn.
As Vern’s guest began to leave his children stated to Erika the Community Life Coordinator and Kelsey Executive Director, “We are very grateful for everything you did for our dad today and it make us happy to see him smile because he hasn’t smiled for a while.”
The success of this program would not be possible without the support of involved staff, family and the gracious volunteers that give their time to make these dreams come true.