When everything is dry around you, there has to be something to look forward to. Rain can really change people’s frames of mind when the Prairies are in the condition they’ve been in these past months.
Rob Stone, a farmer from Davidson, Sask., wanted to tilt the scales for himself and the farming community by proposing a challenge on Twitter. He joined RealAg Radio host Shaun Haney on Thursday’s Farmer Rapid Fire episode, where they chatted about the challenge.
Stone proposed on May 14th that if it rained half an inch by May 25th, he was going to donate $1000 to a charity of his choice — and others quickly signed up.
“It was fascinating — the buy in, or the people that were just ready to have something more to look forward to than a five to seven day forecast that went nowhere,” says Stone. “We had that to look forward to that if we do hit our goal, we get to share some of the wealth as well. It was a fun thing and it kind of just changed the channel a little bit on just looking at the weather apps.”
Who wants to take my rainy day challenge.
I pledge to donate a thousand dollars to a charity of my choice if it rains a half inch or more at my place by may 25th
No dollars for likes or retweets or anything like that
Join me if you wish
— Rob Stone (@rgstone1) May 14, 2021
The tweet got a lot of activity, and Stone unfortunately doesn’t have an idea yet of how many organizations received donations due to the challenge. STARS seemed to be an overwhelming selection from people, says Stone, as it’s a service that a lot of rural people need. Alzheimers societies, Telemiracle and lots of local charities and organizations also received sizeable donations.
“I’m hoping that we can kind of put together an effort with the charities that have benefitted from this, to kind of figure out where this is at, at some point,” he says.
Stone ended up receiving about a half inch in the form of snow on May 20th, and another 1.25 inches in rain over the May long weekend. He squared up his end of the bargain by donating $1000 to his local 4-H club.
