HOISINGTON — Last week at Hoisington’s Chamber Coffee, Becky Steiner, a Hoisington City Council member, spoke briefly about a group of citizens organizing a partnership with the Clark County group Ashes to Ashes to collect donations of needed items to ship to areas in Nebraska affected by March floods. This weekend, the group Wind to Water emerged on Facebook with the announcement it would be part of a convoy to Nebraska on April 27, and urging the public to drop off listed supplies at two Hoisington locations, Cates CarQuest or United Ag. 

According to an April 15 report in the High Plains Journal about the Ashes to Ashes effort, the group started in 2017. Group members are from near rural Ashland and were affected by the Starbuck fire that year, one of the biggest wildfires recorded in the state of Kansas. They wanted to pay back the help they’d been given in their time of need. They’ve taken hay to farmers and ranchers devastated by fires in Montana and Oklahoma in 2017 and 2018. At the end of March, they brought their first delivery of hay to those affected by flooding in Nebraska who a few weeks earlier were hit by a bomb cyclone. 

Mark Berends, the Industrial Arts teacher at Hoisington High School, is from the Clark County community of Englewood. Some of the members of Ashes to Ashes were his neighbors, so when they were looking for help, he volunteered. In March, he accompanied members of Ashes to Ashes on two Nebraska trips. 

“I came with my pickup and a trailer,” he said. “It’s pretty neat to be part of this.” 

Amy Leurman, rural Hoisington, remembers the outpouring of help that was visited on her community after the April 2001 tornado that destroyed a swath of Hoisington. Most of all, she recalls how 300 schools sent kids to help with cleanup, walking fields and picking up debris. She, like others in the community, wanted to find a way to give back to another area, but wasn’t sure about how to go about it. When she learned about Berends’ connection to Ashes to Ashes, she contacted him to learn more. 

Ashes to Ashes plans to make another delivery of hay, seed and fencing supplies to Nebraska in a little less than two weeks. So far, 15 trucks are ready to go, Berends said, and another two trucks from Rush County are anticipated. 

Wind to Water has one trailer of hay pledged so far and is continuing to collect supplies in hopes of loading a second trailer with hedge posts, seed and other fencing supplies, Leurman said.  

The trucks will meet Ashes to Ashes in La Crosse on April 27 and continue together to the designated drop-off.  Last time, they went to Verdigris and Franklin, Berends said, but it is too early yet to know where this next drop will be delivered.  

An account has also been set up at Wilson State Bank for cash donations to Wind to Water, with all proceeds to purchase needed supplies. Some local retailers are offering discounts on some of the items on the list to make it easier to donate.