"We have one of the best communities ever. We come together in celebration, come together in tragedy, come together in support. It’s pretty cool to be in a small town that supports that.”

Sundi Jo Graham

BELLE — Daryl White, Jr., said Monday that the Fight Like a Tiger Benefit Oct. 5 to support two ladies from the Belle High School Class of 1994 who were diagnosed with cancer earlier this year, raised $23,195 total, exceeding their $6,000 to $8,000 goal.

“We thought if we could get them $3,000 to $4,000 it might help them to take a mini vacation or pay some bills,” White said. “So they will receive $11,597.50 each.”

White was a co-organizer of the event that took place at Padgett’s Place Bar & Grill, 215 S. Alvarado Avenue, and benefited Amy (Curry) Reed and Kim (Casey) Buschjost.

“We called the ladies awhile ago to tell them,” he said. “They cried cause they couldn’t talk to us.”

Reed and her husband have two young boys and are self-employed. Since Reed was diagnosed and began treatment, she has been unable to help with their business, while her husband has continued on his own. They have been reluctant to hire any help.

Reed’s close friends have set up a Go Fund Me account to help the family with expenses. She has completed four rounds of AC chemotherapy and four rounds of Taxol chemotherapy. She is scheduled to receive eight more rounds of Taxol before any surgery is to be scheduled. Afterwards, she will receive radiation therapy, if the pathology report indicates it is needed.

“Amy was saying how this was going to help so much,” White said.

Organizers for the Fight Like a Tiger event have been working for months to make the fundraiser successful.

“When we started the benefit meetings, we had zero money, and didn’t want to spend much, so these ladies would receive every dollar,” White said.

The event also doubled as the Belle High School’s 1994 class reunion.

“The original reunion was supposed to take place at White Mule Winery next weekend,” White said. “But we managed to change it to this weekend so everyone would be in town for the benefit.”

The event included a fish fry at $8 a plate, silent auction with all donated items, live auction, a balloon pop, gun raffle, and t-shirt sales.

“We started with the ideal of going to have a fish fry, and thought we would need three cases of fish, but actually fried eight and about 100 pounds of sausage,” White said. “People were stopping on main street and giving us $20 or asking for $125 worth of fish or asking me to make 10 plates and give $100.”

White and five or six other members of the class of 1994 came up with the idea to organize a benefit at the Belle Fair. When they started talking entertainment, one band came up.

“Everyone wanted Touch of Country  — a live band over a DJ; but they thought he would be too expensive,” White said.

When White contacted band member Jim Roberds and asked what the band would charge them to play at the benefit, he couldn’t have asked for a better price.

“He said the best he could do was free,” White said, and described the phone calls to the other band members to ask them if they would also donate their time. “All of them said that was fine; they didn’t hesitate.”

Roberds said he and his band members will sometimes donate their music, if the reason meets their qualifications.

“If we don’t have another gig, and it is a worthy cause, we come down and play,” Roberds said.

Touch of Country plans to play Oct. 12 at Killin’ Time Bar in Bland to benefit the Jason Roberds family.

Daryl White Sr., who is known as Senior said Padgett’s stayed busy all day, and full all night. Adam Padgett, owner of Padgett’s Place Bar & Grill, also graduated in 1994. He donated his business and time to the event.

“Everything we asked for — he just said ‘do what you want.’ He pretty much shut his kitchen off so we could sell food,” White said.

Padgett also set up a secondary bar to help serve customers.

“He said he sold out of ice and almost all of his beer, which has never happened before,” White said.

Senior admired how different the crowd was throughout the day, beginning with the lunch crowd, dinner crowd, silent and live auction crowd, later the band crowd showed up.

“Around 11 p.m. we thought it was over, then a bunch of college kids came in,” White said. “It started all over again.

“There must have been 300 or 400 people in and out all day between the silent auction, live auction, food and music,” Senior said.

Many community members were proud of the turnout. Diane Rector of Redbird said this type of community support is rare in bigger communities.

“It’s a really neat event,” she said. “Someone has taken the time to do this.”

Ronnie Terrill, who lives outside of Belle, said, “It’s amazing for everybody to get together and do like this.”

Terrill said when his wife was sick, the community organized an event for them.

“Now I am here to donate to whoever needs help,” Terrill said.

Prior to the live auction, both Reed and Buschjost made speeches, thanking their supporters and community members for their help and support. Reed said she is “in love with the support and the class of ’94.’” Buschjost added that the “donations and cards have been wonderful.”

Reed’s brother Adam Curry said he is also thankful.

“I’m just thankful everyone came out in support of Amy and Kim,” he said. “It hits close for me. Our mother had breast cancer as well, and hopefully Amy will make it out and be with us for years to come.”

Community member Sundi Jo Graham agreed that the support was amazing.

“We have one of the best communities ever,” she said. “We come together in celebration, come together in tragedy, come together in support. It’s pretty cool to be in a small town that supports that."