A trio of business persons with long ties to the Westside were honored recently by the Firebaugh FFA Boosters for their support of the FFA program at Firebaugh High School, as well as their help with the community at large.
The 12th annual “A Night in Vegas” gala dinner was held at the Clinker Brick Estate with about 350 attendees. It featured dinner, silent and live auction, raffle, and casino-style gambling.
One of the honorees was Randy Delerio, the owner of High Desert Ag, Inc. He has spent over 50 years helping growers oversee their crops. He graduated from Dos Palos High School in 1970 where he was a standout athlete in baseball and football. Two years ago, he was inducted into the Bronco Athletic Hall of Fame.
After high school, he graduated from Fresno State with a Bachelor of Science degree and then obtained his license to become a Pest Control Adviser (PCA).
Over the years Delerio has worked with the Firebaugh school district to schedule chemicals and fertilizer applications. He has also overseen the high school’s almond orchard from its inception many years ago.
Jim Britton is another Dos Palos High graduate (1973). He comes from a well-known Westside farming family and began working in agriculture when he was in high school.
Like Delerio, he graduated from Fresno State and after years of work in the Ag industry, he also became a PCA.
He has also donated his time and talents to the high school’s almond orchard. He donated a water sensor that helps determine the amount of water to put on the trees each week. He has also supported the Ag students by hiring them as field scouts, which helped some of them to go full-time into the Ag industry.
Britton was also acknowledged for his many years of service to the community as a member of the Firebaugh Fire Department.
Krystal and Jorge Cardenas have owned the highly popular Blue Flame Diner in Firebaugh since 2017.
Krystal is a Firebaugh native who was involved in FFA while in high school, and her husband is a transplant. The couple are constantly giving back to the community by, among other things, sponsoring youth baseball and softball teams or working with the FFA Boosters to serve over 500 people a free breakfast at Christmas.
Besides the hundreds of students who are FFA members at Firebaugh High, the school district has added another FFA program at Firebaugh Middle School. The new chapter was chartered this year.
