By Jason Stuart
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
Local individuals and companies are doing their best to provide whatever aid they can to the fire-stricken residents of Garfield County.
Over this past weekend, a few local residents took it upon themselves to organize truckloads of water, food and other items to send to Garfield, much of which is engulfed in flames in a growing complex of fires consuming over 200,000 acres of rangeland, untold numbers of livestock and, as of Tuesday, over a dozen homes. That goodwill continued into the start of this week as other local residents and businesses worked to continue the flow of much-needed aid supplies to their beset Montana neighbors and the firefighters tasked with trying to extinguish the massive blaze.
The ball got rolling on Sunday with an impromptu collection of water, food and supplies held in the Kmart parking lot. Local resident Shannon Kadrmas initiated the aid push with a post to the popular “Dawson Discussion” Facebook page asking anyone willing to donate items to meet in the Kmart parking lot at noon on Sunday.
The response was greater than anything Kadrmas ever imagined.
“By 12:10, my pick-up was completely full with water and Gatorade and my cab was full with the smaller stuff,” Kadrmas said. “It was really cool. The turnout was amazing.”
Kadrmas’ plan was to run his truck full of supplies up to the McCone County Sheriff’s Office in Circle, where his cousin is helping to organize the distribution of aid materials destined for Garfield County. It was quickly evident, however, that locals had brought more than he could handle on his own, so Glendive resident Kevin Thompson, who runs the “Dawson Discussion” Facebook group, offered to take his truck to Circle as well.
“All of the people that showed up was kind of overwhelming,” Thompson said. “You couldn’t fit anything more in either one our trucks for all the food items. I bet we had 150 cases of water and probably 20-30 cases of Gatorade, Powerade and stuff like that.”
Kadrmas noted that the people who showed up to donate items on Sunday seemed to come from a wide variety of socioeconomic backgrounds.
“The one thing that Kevin and I both noticed is some of the people who were donating were probably people who were a little bit in need of things themselves,” he said. “It just confirms my belief that there are really good people in Glendive willing to step up and help whenever it’s needed.”
On Monday, local agricultural supply company Paramount also organized a load of supplies to send to Garfield County.
“They need everything from socks and gloves to water and sandwich meat, I mean, you can go on and on,” said Paramount owner Ty Zimdars.
In addition to standard aid supplies, Zimdars is also looking to send items that will specifically help agricultural producers impacted by the fires. While noting that hay is a much-needed and sought after commodity by local ranchers suffering from the severe drought, he said Paramount can organize hay donations to affected Garfield County ranchers if any locals are willing to supply it.
“If we get hay donations or anything like that, we’ll put that together because we do have a guy willing to haul hay up there for us,” Zimdars said.
Other local businesses getting in on the relief effort include Albertsons and Stockman Bank.
Tuesday morning, Albertsons sent a truck towards Garfield County to aid firefighters. Store grocery manager Carrie Skartved said the truck contained three pallets of water, 20 cases of Gatorade and 20 boxes of foodstuffs donated by both the grocery chain and other local businesses. Albertsons also has a deposit center for individual donations set up in the store lobby, and Skartved noted it has been filled three times already.
Sheyenne Doyle and Stefanie Meek took a load of groceries donated at Albertsons by local residents in her pickup and horse trailer on Tuesday. Doyle noted that Triple T Meats donated a generous amoung of deli meats as well. The items were dropped off at the VFW hall in Jordan.
“From there, firefighters would come in and get what they needed and they also had a women taking supplies and lunches to firefighters who were working the fires,” Doyle said.
The local Albertsons is also working with their regional distribution center to put together an entire semi-truckload of water to send, Skartved said. The company is willing to donate half of that water, and Skartved said they’ll be ready to send it on as soon as they receive matching monetary donations of $1,310 to cover the other half.
Stockman, for their part, has set up a “fire relief fund” to help those impacted by the fire. The bank has pledged to match all contributions to the fund up to $10,000. Donations to the fund can be made by stopping in at the local Stockman branch.
While aid supplies are needed immediately to help impacted residents and exhausted firefighters, Zimdars and the others are also looking to the future once the fires are finally put down. Garfield County ranchers will need fencing materials and other materials to help them rebuild in the aftermath, and Zimdars said Paramount will both be donating fencing materials and “working with our vendors to see what kind of discounts we can get so we can sell them some stuff at cost.”
“We’re hoping they can get it under control, then we can start working towards the rebuilding aspect, but it’s going to be a long road,” Zimdars said.
Thompson echoed those thoughts. “When they get the fires out and the farmers and ranchers can actually go in and figure out what they’re going to need, that’s going to be an effect that’s going to be around for quite a while,” he said. “There’s a lot of other necessities people are going to need, especially those that lost their homes.”
Kadrmas said he may look to organize another haul of aid goods Wednesday, and all involved said the effort of locals and their willingness to donate to their neighbors shows the overall quality of the character of the people of the region.
“One good thing about Eastern Montana is everybody helps everybody,” Zimdars said.
Reach Jason Stuart at rrreporter@rangerreview.com.