On Dec. 16, 2021, in Paradise, Kansas, a wildfire burned hundreds of thousands of acres, hundreds of miles of barbed-wire fencing, dozens of farm buildings and farm vehicles, leaving multiple large ranches devastated.
Brady Fowler, 17, the Fairfield FFA Chapter president, volunteered his time to organize a group to visit Paradise in north-central Kansas, where more than 400,000 acres burned in the 2021 Paradise wildfire.
The ranch Fairfield volunteers plan to visit is the Bar S Ranch, where the fires left the family with only 400 acres of their 20,000-acre ranch unmarred.
“Our family was hit pretty hard, almost our entire ranch,” Stephanie Dickerson, one of the Bar S Ranch managers, said.
Dickerson said multiple FFA chapters visited her family’s ranch to help replace hundreds of miles of barbed-wire fencing, and there’s much more to go. Fowler said engaging in the agricultural community this way allows for a sense of community.
“It’s exciting to see how we can engage with community members and how they engage with us. It lets us see how much support we have out there that we might not be able to see in the classroom,” Fowler said.
At the Bar S Ranch in Paradise, Stephanie Dickerson, her husband David Dickerson, and her in-laws, Ken and Pat Stielow, lost two of the four houses on their ranch, including all barns. One shed was saved.
Dickerson said she and her husband lost all four vehicles and nearly all ranch equipment. “It was pretty devastating for us,” she said.
Other ranches around Bar S had similar losses, losing buildings, animals and hundreds of miles of fencing.
Dickerson said recovery from the fire continues to drag on, but she hopes that they can get the ranch back intact by summer this year.
The FFA chapters from the region and throughout Kansas traveled to help Bar S Ranch. Dickerson said more than four other FFA chapters visited to help replace fencing and donate supplies.
“I would just say that if you want to see the very best of the youth, kids with work ethic, kids that aren’t afraid to get out, get their hands dirty, the best-mannered kids, it would be the kids involved in FFA,” Dickerson said.
Fowler said he turned to the Fairfield community after reaching out to Bar S Ranch, hoping to gain support and donated supplies. 
“I made up my mind at the end of January, so I started to make the phone calls and get the flyer made to put out to the community so they could see it is enough time to get supplies,” Fowler said.
More than a dozen Fairfield community members, including some of the other FFA members, joined in Fowler’s project, donating time, fencing supplies or vehicles to haul supplies north to Paradise.
The group plans to travel to Paradise on March 5, leaving early in the morning to spend the day, helping at Bar S Ranch in any way they can.
“I think it’s humbling when our students want to step up and help other people,” Mary Fulk, the agriculture education instructor at Fairfield High School, said. “Sometimes they think, ‘well, I’m only 17, 18, years old, I can’t make a difference,’ but when they just organize something, they can make a big difference.”
The Four County Fire Mitigation Team also accepts donations for time, supplies or funds to help the families affected by the wildfires last December. Other organizations are listed on the Kansas Department of Agriculture resource page.
