Benefit set for Granby man

Seven bands are gathering Saturday to do battle.

But at stake isn’t a trophy or even bragging rights as to which is the best. Instead, the groups are coming together for a battle of the bands benefit for an area man and his family.

The benefit for Vincent Mikeska of Granby will be held Saturday, rain or shine, at West 60 Cycle, located four miles west of U.S. 71 on U.S. 60 between Neosho and Seneca.
The event begins at 10 a.m., with bands taking the stage beginning at noon.

According to Tom Stith, event organizer and a co-worker of Mikeska’s at Joplin’s Rock Tenn Co. — formerly Gulf States Paper — seven area bands have agreed to participate: Painful Addiction, City Limits, Knudist Knights, Pretty Empire, Sarah Dunn and Sundown, Plague Ground, and Rockin Rodeo Band.

Stith said Mikeska was diagnosed on May 2 with brain cancer. Eight days later, he lost his Granby home to the May 10 tornado.

“At the end of April, he was feeling strange, and thought he was having stroke issues,” Stith said in a recent interview. “So he goes and has an MRI, and they discovered several brain tumors. They later discovered it was brain cancer. Eight days later, the tornado rips through Granby and hit their house directly.”

The tornado leveled the family’s home that had just been finished six months before, knocking Mikeska and his wife, Toni, outside. His son, Will, was inside the home taking a shower when the tornado struck. The house landed on top of the family’s car, Stith said.

Toni Mikeska suffered severe head injuries and, for a time, was hospitalized in the Freeman West intensive care unit. She is currently out of intensive care and is at Freeman East undergoing rehabilitation.

Vincent Mikeska suffered a broken back and a large hematoma, or collection of blood, on his right side, delaying radiation therapy for cancer.

In doing X-rays and other tests for his tornado injuries, doctors found the presence of cancer in Vincent Mikeska’s lungs, which had also spread to his spine.

“It’s inoperable,” Stith said. “They can’t do a thing for him.”

While insurance will pay to replace the home and belongings, medical costs loom for the family, Stith said. Although Vincent Mikeska wasn’t a close friend, Stith decided to do something for his co-worker.

“I was young when I lost my mother to cancer,” he said. “And he had these tragedies happen one right after another.”

So Stith started sending e-mails to organize a benefit. Initially, two bands signed up to play, but as word spread, others soon followed.

“All of the sudden, we got seven,” he said. “People started calling right and left, people donating food, people wanting to help.”

Will Mikeska, 20, quit his job at Twin Oaks cabinet to help out with his father’s care, Stith said. The younger Mikeska’s former employer found out about the benefit, buying 60 tickets at $5 each so employees could attend. Stith said he collected the company’s check, sealed in an envelope. Later, when he opened it, he found a check not for $300, but for $500.

Others have also been kind. Stith’s wife, a Seneca school teacher, received an anonymous donation sealed in an envelope. Inside were five $100 bills. Jarden of Neosho plans on donating auction items, Stith said. A local poultry processor donated 140 pounds of chicken for the event. Others have donated soda, smoked pork and bottled water. One company has donated port-o-potties for the event.

“I’ve been in contact with Newton County Sheriff Ken Copeland, and he said he would put out a sign-up sheet at the sheriff’s office so deputies could volunteer to provide security,” Stith said. “And if they couldn’t get volunteers, he said he would have patrols out to help us.”

T-shirts will also be sold at the event, and there will be a 50/50 pot raffle. Stith said he is still working on getting a dunk tank booth at the benefit.

Bands will take the stage throughout the day, Stith said, with the last one, Rockin’ Rodeo, to go on at about 9 p.m. In between acts, live music will continue, with at least one acoustic guitarist playing for the crowd between sets.

“It will be an all-day kind of thing,” Stith said. “I thought to myself, ‘What can I do to get a whole lot of people to come out?’ And it hit me: Music.”

Alcohol will not be allowed at the event, Stith said.

While the two weren’t close friends outside of work, Stith described Mikeska as a caring man who helped others. And now, he said, he wants to return the favor.

“Vince was an electrician as well as working in maintenance at Rock Tenn,” he said.

“During the ice storms, he would go and hook up generators for people for nothing. The guy would do anything in the world for people. He was a jovial, helpful individual.
That’s what pulled at my heart.”