When a wildfire ravaged the western Kansas counties of Russell, Ellis, Osborne and Rooks in mid-December, the impact was devastating.
 
And not just to those directly impacted, families who lost countless heads of cattle and saw their farmlands and ranches mostly or completely destroyed by the fires that covered nearly 190 square miles.
 
The agriculture community across the state felt the blow. Farmers and ranchers all over Kansas immediately knew relief was needed in a big way and did what they do.
 
They "Cowboyed Up."
 
Working to gather supplies, clothing, hay, materials – whatever was needed – they responded in force to help their own. Convoys of trucks and trailers loaded down converged on Russell County to do their part to begin the recovery process.
 
Among those instrumental in helping were high school students Emma Albers of Doniphan West and Connor Knipp of Palco. Each took it upon themselves to make a contribution and make a difference and are this week's Co-Capitol Federal True Blue® Student of the Week.
 
"I was just ready to jump in a truck and drive out and help in any way I could," Albers said.
 
 

Emma Albers, Doniphan West
 
The smell of smoke was so strong, the Albers' immediate thought was something had happened on their farm.
 
"We were freaking out, thinking something was on fire on the farm," Albers said. "We were running around trying to figure it out. Then I looked at Facebook and saw someone had posted about wildfires out in western Kansas. At that point we didn't know the severity of it."
 
The next morning, Albers learned exactly how devastating the fires – whipped by winds that reached 100 miles per hour in Russell – had been.
 
"The first Facebook post I saw – it's engrained in my head – is "We need cowboys and guns!" And that was it. I knew that meant there were cows there that were injured but not yet deceased and needed to be put out of their misery and stop the suffering."
 
Raised on a farm by her parents Jeff and Sara, the plea immediately hit home. In addition to growing corn and soybeans, the Albers have a herd of cattle. In fact, Emma has her own herd of 13 cows that she in 100% responsible for both physically and financially.
 
In addition to her farming duties, she's also worked the past two years at Cedar Ridge Veterinary Clinic in Atchison, which is about 20 minutes from the Albers' farm, and she plans to pursue a career as a veterinary technician.
 
"Since I work in a vet clinic and also with animals on the farm, the circle of life is something I just experience nearly every day," Albers said. "So I was ready to jump in my truck with my gun and go help those farmers and ranchers in any way I could.
 
"Just reading all the posts about what everyone had lost and were going through, it was so heartbreaking. It really hit close to home because they're farmers and ranchers just like we are and I couldn't imagine something like that happening to us. All I wanted to do is help in any way I could."
 
While Albers wasn't able to just jump in her truck and provide immediate relief, she did the next-best thing. She began coordinating a relief effort in northeast Kansas, seeking donations of supplies and money.
 
The president of Doniphan West's Future Farmers of America chapter, she contacted her sponsor, Hannah Adame, to see what the chapter could do.
 
"She's a very driven, passionate individual who isn't afraid of doing the hard work to accomplish a goal," Adame said. "She reached out to me about doing something as club, but we had just gotten out of school and I knew it was going to be hard to coordinate things without actually seeing the students. I told her, 'I think your idea is really great, but let's wait for a whole chapter meeting to see what we can coordinate.'
 
"But she was so gung ho and asked, 'Would you be offended if I did something on my own?' I was like, 'Go for it!"
 
So Albers ran with it on her own. Using the same social media savvy that she's used to enhance Doniphan West's FFA program, Albers quickly spread the word of her intentions and began to get an overwhelming response from the Doniphan County community and beyond.
 
Hoping to get at least one truckload of supplies to deliver west, Albers ended up accumulating enough donations to fill three trailers. In all the combined value in supplies and monetary donations came to roughly $10,000.
 
"It was overwhelming, amazing," Albers said, who got response from not only people in Doniphan County but several surrounding counties as well, along with the FFA and Kay Club at Centralia High School. "I could not have done this without the community support and the donations from them. I'm just so happy a lot of people came through and helped us put this project together and help out those western Kansas families."
  
Through Facebook, Albers focused in on Morrill Cattle Company in Paradise, one of several ranches in the four-county area devastated by the fires along with Bar S Ranch and a number of smaller farms. Monty and Kristi Morrill lost everything, even totaling their truck when they hit a cow while driving through the smoke and fire to see if they could salvage anything on their ranch.
 
Communicating with the Morrills, Albers formulated a specific list of what they needed to begin to rebuild and set to fulfilling as much of it as she could.
 

In less than a week, Albers ended up with more than 1,000 T posts, nearly 50 hedge posts, 52 spools of barbed wire, thousands of clips and insulators, 80 bags (two tons) of mineral, 16 protein tubs, horse feed, dog food, wire stretchers, crimpers, stock tanks, cattle waterers, solar fence chargers as well as clothing items for the family and toys for the children, who lost their Christmas.
 
"The fencing material was the biggest thing for me," Albers said. "That's their livelihood and that's their income. I wanted to help them get up and going as soon as possible."
 
Albers and her family and friends delivered the three trailers full of supplies on Dec. 23.
 
"It was very eye-opening," she said. "You see the pictures, you hear the stories, but it doesn't compare to when you got out there and saw it for yourself. It was heartbreaking for sure. It made my dad physically sick because those people are just like us, farmers and ranchers, and it just as easily could have happened to us or our community. I can't imagine losing cattle, farm equipment and buildings.
 
"But the support that came in was just amazing. From the time we were there, we saw six semi loads of hay being hauled in and that was amazing seeing that kind of support come in. … Going out there and helping makes me feel stronger in the ag community, but I feel like the ag community has always been this strong. It's always been willing to help others in need of that help. It's an industry like no other."
 
It came as no shock to the staff at Doniphan West that Albers stepped up to answer the call.
 
"Emma is a student that when you hear of something happening and you'll hear her name behind that," said Tara Schneider, counselor at Doniphan West. "Something that really shows on her character is she doesn't have to have people know that she's the one that did something. She is constantly working in the background to make things happen and doing it for good reasons, nothing superficial or to get recognition.
 
"No one told Emma to do this, but that's just her character trait."
 
"She's got a great work ethic and is just so passionate about agriculture, that's her love," said Doniphan West athletic director and English teacher Sarah Smith. "She's a great kid, a natural leader. … We have some great kids here at D-West and Emma is one of them. She's very supportive of everything being done and she is an example of what we want the culture to be at our school."
 
A member of Doniphan West's National Honor Society, Albers also is involved in STUCO, Kay Club, Business Professionals of America. She served as reporter and secretary of her FFA club before taking over as president this year.
 
"I fell in love with FFA before I was even in FFA," she said. "I'd see the high schoolers doing barn warming or any of their other activities and I couldn't wait to be a freshman so I could join."
 
Adame has not only seen Albers grow within the chapter, but the chapter grow because of Albers as well.
 
"She was so excited about going to contests and doing other things in FFA and had these really big ideas," Adame said. "To see her apply that to the agriculture community and outside in the community itself, it's just really exciting to see. … We've gone through a lot of changes and Emma has embraced them and headed up a lot of committees and put in a lot of time with projects and is passionate about that. She's a role model for a lot of the younger kids. They see her success and they're like, 'How do I do that?'"
 
Albers also runs cross country and track for the Mustangs and was a member of two Class 1A state championship teams and one runner-up finisher in cross country. In track, she ran the third leg on the Mustangs' state championship 3,200 relay last spring.
 
Her dedication to each is deep seeded in her farming background.
 
"That's really shaped me who I am; that's what makes my world go round – living on the farm, working on the farm," Albers said. "My dad raised me to be tough. When I was little, he always was telling me, 'Cowgirls don't cry.' I live by that motto, truthfully, and having that sense of mental toughness has contributed to everything I do – track, job, school, whatever."
 
Albers plans to study veterinary nursing and technology online through Colby Community College next year, building on the experience she's already gotten at Cedar Ridge Vet Clinic. Starting as a kennel tech – or as she calls it, the pooper scooper – Albers has worked closely with Cedar Ridge owners Shawn and Christine McCoole, soaking up anything and everything she could.
 
"I started at the bottom and am working my way up," Albers said. "That's how my parents did it. They started with absolutely nothing and just worked up from there. They've really taught me the value of hard work."
 

 

Connor Knipp, Palco

Connor Knipp was prepared for the worst.  

As wildfires started spreading in north central Kansas on Dec. 15, Knipp, a senior at Palco High School, got word that his family home and farm in Damar was in possible danger.  

"We were sitting in the house, the dust storm came hard," Knipp said. "And my dad got a call saying that there was a fire straight south of us. And at the time the wind was coming from the south so it was heading straight for us." 

Knipp said the fire got about a mile away before a shift in wind took it a different direction away from his family's property. 

"When that fire was heading straight toward us, we went out in the front yard with a garden hose and just started wetting down the front yard as best as we could," Knipp said. "For 17 years, I've grew up and I've been running cows and farming with my dad for the last four years there. If I lost that place, I would be pretty devastated." 

With that in mind, Knipp's thoughts turned to the families that lost everything from the fires in Rooks, Osborne, Ellis and Russell counties. 

The next day, he saw a Facebook post from the Heartland Regional Stockyard in Plainville seeking hay donations for farms affected by the fires.  

Knipp turned to his friends and fellow Palco students Jadin Newell and Bradon Stohs, and said, "All right, let's go do a good deed for those people that lost everything." 

Knipp, Newell and Stohs dedicated the afternoon to hauling hay to the donation drop-off site in Plainville. They used Knipp's tractor, bale trailer and pickup truck to deliver the donated hay. 

"Together, these young men made the best of their time and their abilities by helping others in time of need," Palco athletic director Lacey Keller said.  

Knipp donated 12 hay bales to the donation site and also gave hay and farm materials to a family friend who had been heavily impacted by the fires.  

"It felt pretty good to do that because those people, they lost all their homes, they lost all their livestock," Knipp said. "You yourself you can't replace the livestock. But when they do get their livestock back they will have feed to feed them."

Knipp said his community has always had his back and he wanted to return the favor, knowing they would do the same for him if the situation had been reversed.  

"Sometime in the future we're all going to need each other for something," he said.

"I love living out here," he added. "All of our neighbors, if they need help they'll call us. If we need help, we'll call them and they will be more than happy to come help us, any time, any day. That's the main reason I love living out here." 

Knipp, who plays basketball and football for Logan/Palco, has also cherished his high school experience.

"I've loved high school here at Palco," Knipp said. "People say it's the middle of nowhere, but they would be surprised how much joy goes around the school. There's never a dull moment here. Someone's always laughing. It's pretty cool out here and I wouldn't trade this school for anything." 

After graduation, Knipp will attend North Central Kansas Technical College in Hays for a year-long welding program.  

"After that I'm going to come back full-time on the family farm and try to get bigger my own herd and farm ground," Knipp said.