Long story short. Two CHS grads (Tommy Salisbury and Tony Ostrander) started trying to fill their two trailers with MUCH needed supplies such as hay and livestock feed. Within 48 hours the community had come together and filled SIX trailers with roughly 150 bales of hay, at least 2 tons of livestock feed, and a pallet of water that my students were able to get donated from Discovery Church. All of these supplies went to Woodward, OK. Plus people pulled together to make sure they all had full fuel tanks and money for fuel on the return trip as well as money to cover toll booth costs. For a town our size this is AMAZING!

Many of our FFA members even went out again today in search of donations and have filled the ag truck for a second time as well as collected over $300 to help those affected by the fires. Jake is hauling a load of hay as well as the supplies collected today to Buffalo, OK tomorrow.

Some info on the fire:
over 900, 000 acres in Oklahoma burned
it is only 90% contained even after 5 days of fighting it
thousands of livestock perished
thousands of miles of fence destroyed
while most homes were saved most barns where tractors, hay, feed, tools etc are housed were burned
numerous lives lost (most were trying to save their animals and were overtaken by the fire)
AND one big thing we keep getting asked is "didn't the ranchers have insurance?" The answer is no, on the outside ranchers look like they have money because they own a chunk of land, have a tractor, and nice truck. The reality is they are usually in debt and the payout for ranching is so low that insurance costs are generally out of the question. The average rancher cannot afford insurance.

I know these guys and kids did not do this for the recognition but they deserve a big pat on the back so once Jon gets you the pictures I would greatly appreciate it if you could use some of this information and the pictures to put something on both cvilleok and the school site.

I will send you the photos I have as well either tonight or tomorrow morning.

Thanks for all you do Ted!

Students pictured are Laci Ascano, Hannah Ramsey, Hannah Ascano, Laney Branen, Mckena Lewis. The gentleman in the picture is from Discovery Church, Hannah Ramsey reached out to him and he met us at the neighborhood market and purchase a pallet of water to be donated!