Over 70 tractors drove through Dawn-Euphemia this weekend – a tribute and a fundraiser for a new mental health initiative in the community.

Three Oaks Respite Cabin is being built by the Bergsma family for farmers and first responders struggling with mental health issues.

The family is building the cabin in memory of their son and brother Dalles who died by suicide in November 2020. He was farmer and volunteer firefighter.

Farmers are twice more likely to die by suicide than the general population. Twenty-five percent of first responders have thought about suicide.

The tractors travelled in the rain Saturday afternoon as a salute to Dalles and to raise money for the Three Oaks Respite Cabin, a place where farmers and first responders can recover from daily stresses and anxieties and have access to mental health support.

The parade wound its way around the Florence and Shetland area and past the cemetery where Dalles is buried where the members of the Dawn-Euphemia Fire Department were standing in tribute.