Plumas-Sierra Junior Livestock Auction!

For the past several weeks, Plumas County, CA has been devastated by the Dixie Fire. We were able to get the names of several kids who lost everything, including their home, but saved their 4H animals. It really shows what the most important things are to them! For months, they have been so focused on raising, showing, and selling their project animals at the Plumas-Sierra Junior Livestock Auction. They work so hard all year long for this.

Brian and I have both been a part of 4H since our childhoods. Our 4 girls have been involved in 4H here in Fort Jones, California for 5 years now. We both know what hardworking, resilient kids 4H-er’s are and we wanted to help the Indian Valley and Wolf Creek 4H kids and their families after hearing about the devastation the Dixie Fire had left in it’s path through their communities.

While at our own local 4H County Fair, I started a campaign with our Five Marys customer base and instagram community the week prior to the auction to bring awareness to the 4H Junior Livestock Auction as a great way for anyone across the country to support their local, hardworking kids. It’s also a great source for quality meats like beef, pork, lamb, goat, etc. Especially as commodities prices on these meats continue to rise. Five Marys offered $2 from every pound of ground beef we sold to go to the local Siskiyou County 4H auction in support of local kids as price support or ‘add-ons’ for their animals.

I started sharing on my Instagram stories about supporting the Plumas-Sierra auction on Wednesday, just a few days prior to the Sunday auction. Overnight, we had raised $30,000! A good friend, Carlos Whittaker, of Nashville saw my story on Thursday morning and wanted to help too. I had been a podcast guest on his powerful podcast, ‘Human Hope,’ that was releasing that day – and I knew when he texted me ‘Let’s do this,’ that morning, we could make big things happen in the next 24 hours. Carlos has a community of 235,000 on Instagram that he calls #instafamilia. When they see a need or a person who needs a little extra help – they are active in making donations by the thousands. Most donations are under $5, but every single donation adds up.

In just ONE HOUR, the @loswhit #instafamilia community raised over $40,000! I was SPEECHLESS. Then later that day they were already up to $95,000!!! A mere 24 hours later, his community had donated $153,241 in donations via Venmo and Paypal.

Combined, our communities raised $251,420 to support every kid in Indian Valley and Wolf Creek 4H Clubs who had been impacted by the Dixie Fire.

I decided I just had to be at the Plumas County Junior Livestock Auction in person. It’s about 5 1/2 hours from where we are in Fort Jones, California – so my wingman Megan and I drove through the night and made it there by Sunday morning! While she drove, I poured through pages and pages of notes that I took after talking to 4H leaders and friends who have helped me understand which kids needed our help the most and had their lives/families/businesses/homes lost or greatly impacted by the fires. I worked on my laptop to create spreadsheets to organize our bidding – using every single penny that you all donated.

I was absolutely humbled to be a part of it, representing THOUSANDS of people who had donated in the few days leading up to the auction. It was an unforgettable experience to be there in person and buy their 4H livestock projects in the auction ring for generous amounts, or in some cases, to let locals bid and buy the animals for very generous amounts and be able to ‘add-on’ price support of $5,000 or $10,000.

Every single kid was so grateful and surprised – no one expected more than anyone else, even though they might have lost everything to this fire. I’ve never seen a more thankful, humble, and gracious group of kids. In the end, we were able to buy or price support 24 kids with the $251,420 raised and another $53,000 was raised by selling the animals again to benefit the Dixie Fire Fund.

The first person we bid on was Jewel and her goat, Forest Gump. Jewel was Reserve Champion and had lost her house in the fire. She saved her goat by carrying it with her inside their car to flea the fires. She lost everything in the fire so her mom went to Walmart to buy her a new white shirt for the fair and she also borrowed extras that people had. She told me she was so nervous to show and I told her all she had to do was smile. The crowd stopped bidding at $31. I took it up to $34 and kept bidding against myself. We ended at $100 a pound and the reaction on Jewel’s face is something I will never forget.

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Logan was up next. He lost his pig in a barn fire. He is raised by his dad who is a firefighter. Logan lost his pig in the fire so he was collecting donations. We donated $10,000 to Logan and his family. YOU all are the reason we were able to add an extra 10 grand to this young kid who is going through so much. Almost every single person in the audience raised their card to donate something to Logan and his family too. THIS is community.

After Logan we had Kadee. Her dad is a sheriff and they lost their entire neighborhood in the fire. They’ve been working tirelessly to help save their community. Goats usually sell for around $8 a pound. We took it up to $50 a pound thanks to you guys. All of it was donated back to have them sell it again for the Dixie Fire Fund.

Amaiya and her family were recently evacuated from their home. Amaiya has a sweet little sister who has cerebral palsy and her beautiful mom carries her around in a Moby wrap. Amaiya is the best big sister. She was showing a 275 hog that she raised herself. Bidding stopped at $8 a pound and we took it to $22 a pound. Amaiya and her dad came to find me right away. She introduced herself with a firm handshake and said ‘Thank you for buying my pig!!!’ You guys did this!

Kailey and Haley are twin sisters and are raised by their grandparents. Their grandpa still works everyday as a cowboy at 74 years old to provide for her and her sister. They were evacuated from the ranch where they live and are unsure when or if they can go back. Kailey was selling her sheep and hoping to get $8-$15 a pound. We bought her 143 pound lamb for $100 a pound. That’s $14,300 PLUS local add-on donations from those who were bidding against us. She hoped to get $1,100. Her lamb was also donated back to sell again for the Dixie Fire Fund. The twins and I FaceTimed with Carlos and they just kept saying, ‘Are you sure?! We don’t want to call you crazy, but is this logical?!’ They were SO sweet and SO incredibly thankful.

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We bought Jhett’s steer for $20 a pound. He was actually Francie’s team roping partner in District 1 last year! Jhett and his cousin Wade live in Taylorsville and have been pulling hose and liters fighting the fire around their homes and ranches every single day. Jhett is 14 and is working as hard as a firefighter to save his community. He’s been at it for weeks.

We bought Jacob’s pig at the auction and he was so grateful and so relieved. He said ‘You bought my pig! For so much! Can I hug you?!’ He shared that he was getting a little bit worried because he knew the community might have a hard time supporting at the auction. Sometimes kids might spend so much on feeding an animal that they might end up losing money if there isn’t support. Jacob was so upbeat and gracious – it was very inspiring and something I won’t soon forget.

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A sweet girl named Haley found me and said, ‘Thank you for buying our goats! Our buyer’s baskets got lost and shipping to Tennessee when we left our house. We’ll get them to you – we are so grateful!’ I told her she did NOT need to worry about a buyer’s basket… but how ironic that it’s headed towards Carlos who lives in Nashville!

Daisy Mae was selling her steer and I bid on this girl from all of you! She’s from Indian Valley and helping use her family’s trucking equipment to protect their community with fire lines. The fire came to their back door but they saved their home. I kept the bidding going until we got $20 a pound.

A sweet girl named Kylee from Wolf Creek lost everything in her home when it burned down in Greenville. She was so nervous to show and did great! Bidding went to $16 a pound and we bought it for $100 a pound!

Josh raised a beautiful steer and was awarded Reserve Grand Champion of the whole fair! He’s a Seirraville local. What I loved was that kids were getting fantastic bidding support from the community. On those kids we did an ‘add-on’ of some extra cash and let a community member buy it. We are all supporting so many kids who need it so much this year!

At the end of the auction I wrote the biggest check I’ve ever had the privilege of writing in my life… $251,420! A quarter of a million dollars! We calculated every last dollar donated by @loswhit, #instafamilia, and the M5 communities up until noon the day of the auction. Every penny was given to these kids. THANK YOU!

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Megan, who made the drive with me through the night, kept me on track for bidding (and instagramming in between!). It was intense and amazing and she helped me keep it straight!

The community was blown away and so grateful. They were the most deserving people every. After the auction, we took a group photo with all of the kids and in between their thank you’s and gracious smiles, we talking about what their 4H pledge is all about.

‘My heart to greater loyalty, my my hands to larger service, my health to better living – for my club, my country, and my world.’

I know the donations from thousands of people in the M5 community and #instafamilia have made a huge impact on these kids and they will continue to pay it forward.

THANK YOU.