Members of Washington United Presbyterian Church traveled to Ashland, Kansas for their fence mission. Photo courtesy of Washington United Presbyterian Church.

Area farmers aided victims of the Kansas wildfires that devastated ranching communities last March.

Kansas native and Wellman resident Sid Rowland was amazed by the efforts of Iowans across the state and in Washington County, “I was astounded at the level of support and organization that went into this. There were farm bureaus involved, there were cattlemen’s associations involved, there were FFA associations, 4-H clubs. The faith community did a wonderful job at raising money to buy fencing supplies. There was just a huge amount of support and a lot of that came from the Washington area.”

These fence posts were purchased from funds raised by Carol Horning and Megan Coakley and were given to Lohrding 3 Bar Ranch in Coldwater, Kansas. Photo courtesy of Patricia Lohrding.

Rowland cites Carol Horning and Megan Coakley who organized volunteer efforts and donations of feed and fencing supplies. There were convoys that transported supplies and helped install fencing, such as the Southeast Iowa Wildfire Relief in Columbus Junction, Washington United Presbyterian Church, and the Henry County Cattlemen’s Association. Rowland says, “There were a lot of people that made the trip to Kansas but there were a lot of people that did not make that trip that I call ‘silent supporters’ and those are people that may have donated financially to these supply drives, paid for fuel. You know they may have made meals for truckers and loaders there’s just a lot of different ways that people can help with this.”

Rowland is hosting an event to celebrate the silent supporters as well as the people who journeyed to Kansas to aid ranchers. There will be a free ice cream social in Steinbeck Hall at Marr Park, with a slideshow of the Kansas relief efforts and live bluegrass music from 3-7 p.m. Sunday.