When Jim Steadman was 8 years old, he watched as volunteer firefighters struggled with a fire that burned his home near Tribbey, Okla.

His still-strong memory of that incident, along with the nation’s renewed focus on emergency services and those who provide them, moved him to action.

Steadman, 40, an Ottawa rancher and organizer of Lawrence’s 2-year-old Bullennium bull-riding event, established the Douglas County Heroes Fund. The county’s township volunteer fire departments are already benefiting from the annual event.

“Sept. 11 had a big impact on me and everybody,” said Steadman, owner of Lucky 7 Rodeo Productions. “I wanted something that would help emergency services.”

The heroes fund will receive a percentage of the proceeds from the December Bullennium. After the Bullennium this past December, Steadman presented a check for $1,032 to Eudora Fire Chief Spencer McCabe, who also is chairman of Douglas County Fire Chiefs Assn.

Those checks will keep coming. Steadman said he decided to help the township fire departments after talking with Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical Chief Jim McSwain.

“He said that the city fire and police departments were pretty well-funded and the township fire departments had a greater need,” Steadman said. “I felt that this would be a way of honoring and giving back to Douglas County in a very useful manner.”

“This assistance is extremely welcome,” McCabe said. “The money will be used for training programs for the various departments.”

The funding may allow Douglas County volunteer fire departments eventually to conduct their own training to meet Kansas firefighter certification requirements, McCabe said.

It also might result in certification tests conducted by Kansas University to be handled locally. Township firefighters usually have to go elsewhere in the state for certain types of training and to take certification tests.

“You lose an edge in the testing if you have to use equipment that you are not used to,” McCabe said.

There are 10 fire departments in Douglas County, and that includes townships as well as Lawrence’s department.

The heroes fund was set up as a nonprofit fund at Douglas County Bank, Steadman said. This year’s Bullennium will be Dec. 6 and 7. The event has about two dozen area businesses as sponsors.