Following a series of major wildfires this year in Texas, Anheuser-Busch and its wholesalers in the state are donating $45,000 to help employees of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department whose homes were damaged or destroyed by the fires.

More than 34,000 acres of land and more than 1,500 homes were consumed by the fires, including 98 percent of Bastrop State Park and 22 homes of Texas Park and Wildlife employees. Many more parks employees sustained significant damage to their properties.

Anheuser-Busch contributed the first $10,000 and then asked Texas wholesalers to donate as well. The total gift of $45,000 will go to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's Employee Relief Fund, established under the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation in an effort to help ease the financial burden of those employees affected by the wildfires.

Anheuser-Busch wholesalers who contributed were Ben E. Keith Co. Distributing in Forth Worth, Brown Distributing in Austin, R & K Distributing in Longview, Falls Distributing in Wichita Falls, Silver Eagle Distributing (Houston and Cypress), Standard Sales Co. in Odessa, Del Papa Distributing Co. in Galveston; Budweiser Distributing Co. in Amarillo, Tri-City Distributing in New Braunfels, Eagle Distributing of Texarkana and Wismer Distributing Co. in Baytown. In addition to cash donations, many wholesalers also have sponsored fund-raisers in their respective markets for numerous relief efforts.

"Our thoughts are with all the families in Texas who were affected by this crisis," said Henry Dominguez, Anheuser-Busch's regional vice president in Dallas. "Our financial support for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation is one way we can help alleviate the burden on families affected by the fires."

Earlier this year, in April and September, Anheuser-Busch donated a total of more than 170,000 cans of water for areas of Texas affected by wildfires. A-B Distributing Co. in San Angelo, Ben E. Keith Company, Falls Distributing, Brown Distributing and Silver Eagle Distributors worked with relief organizations to get the water where it was needed. So far this year Anheuser-Busch has donated more than 1.9 million cans of water for U.S. disaster relief.