Thank you to the wonderful people who work for and watch North Dakota Today – it was an incredibly beautiful fall day to talk about Charlotte Myrdal, my Nice Person of the Week, as well as a brief look at North Dakota Niceness happening on the western part of the state as they fight wildfires.

For more information on the Ovarian Cancer Alliance Foundation, click here.

This message below is by Valerie Woeste and was sent to me by her mother about the fire fight. If you are looking to donate, consider supporting one of the hard-working fire departments: Ray, Tioga, Culbertson, Williston Rural, Trenton, Grenora, Stanley, Powers Lake, Epping, Long Creek, Columbus, Lignite, Portal, Crosby, Bowbells, Wildrose, Alamo, Kenmare, Westby, and Bainville. If you want to help with those who have been displaced, send me an email and I’ll get you up to date contacts and information.

There’s one thing that always makes me proud to say I’m from North Dakota.
IT CERTAINLY IS NOT THE WEATHER
It’s this thing people call North Dakota nice.

The small town I grew up in and many small towns in our state experienced a horrendous experience…….a rapid spreading wildfire that quickly turned into multiple fires.

Now, the wind is one of my least favorite things about North Dakota and it always will be……but especially yesterday. 40-60 mph winds definitely aided and fueled this fire’s growth.

But I felt completely helpless not being with family members as they began to prepare for evacuation.

This is when North Dakota nice starts.

The first word of a fire and the farmers instantly move their tractors and discs near to start tilling the fields. They do this to get some of the dry leftover stalks from harvest buried so there isn’t as much to burn even if it’s not in the vicinity of their own farm, they are headed to neighbors farms to get the job done!

The fire department is supported greatly by the community ALWAYS! The firefighters who are all volunteers rush with pride to start doing their jobs. And one really cool thing about ND is that they were quickly joined by other volunteer fire departments prepared to help their neighbor for AS LONG AS IT TAKES!

The other people in the community check on their neighbors to make sure they are all ok and then they start making sandwiches, pitchers of lemonade, finding packs of water and Gatorade to take down to the firehall so the firefighters all have enough fuel to keep them going.

The farmers help the firefighters.
The firefighters are fighting for the farmers.
The community members try to help both.

My point with this is…….if you ever want to see God’s word at work……pay attention during a crisis or just most days in a town in ND! Here in ND we do a pretty good job of loving our neighbors!

Be sure to thank a firefighter because this type of fire could have been one to take over our entire state FAST! Prayers of comfort for those who lost so much and prayers for those still fighting these fires!

I hope you enjoy this week’s North Dakota Today segment, which you can watch by clicking the image below. Have a happy week!