DAYKIN, NE — An FFA chapter in southeast Nebraska is hoping to provide some relief to those impacted by a large fire in southwest Nebraska.

"This is a good opportunity for us to help out fellow Nebraskans in need because I'm sure they'd do the same for us," Chase Bartels said.

Meridian FFA Sentinel Chase Bartels came up with the idea with his father after seeing news footage of wildfires across the state. His adviser, Sarah Hebda says the rest of the group jumped on the opportunity.

"The chapter pretty openly shares ideas when they have them so they brought it to my attention and I automatically thought, 'Wow that's a great idea,'" Hebda said. "I love it when the kids come up with these ideas."

The group is mainly looking for fencing supplies and feed for animals. Any supplies donated will go to the victims of the Road 702 Fire, which has burned over 43,000 acres.

"We come from a rural area where that easily could have been us," Hebda said. "We can't quite fathom what is must be like, but we're all producers, we're all from rural communities and we know what it's like to support each other through hard times."

Meridian FFA is expecting most of the donations to come in during their banquet Tuesday, May 3. They have no doubt the area will step up to help.

"In agriculture, we're all just one big small community," Hebda said. "We may not have personally gone through it, but we all have livestock or we raise crops. To see lives just get destroyed by fires is crazy."

The deadline for the drive is still a bit in flux, but Meridian’s FFA Chapter is looking to run the drive through early May.