A barrel racing and silent auction event at the Blanket FFA rodeo arena on April 2 raised $21,539 for local volunteer fire departments. “When this idea came up, the most awesome group of friends put this together in a week and a half,” John Krischke said. “Silent auction items came pouring in, and as fast as they were posted on Facebook, people were bidding on them from all over the state. We want to thank every business and individuals that donated an item and all the ones that bid. We had barrel racers from all over Texas come ride because they wanted to help out. We live in a great state!”