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Hundreds showed up Saturday night at a fundraiser to benefit Curtis Almeter.
The 26-year-old suffers from cystic fibrosis. Funds raised will help pay for transport and living expenses while he awaits lung transplant surgery at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis.
“It’s really, really heartwarming and amazing,” said Karen Almeter, Curtis’ mom.
She was worried that they wouldn’t get the event pulled together. They had only five weeks to plan, but friends kicked in at church and at Crowder College where she works and where Curtis graduated this spring.
Someone did a flier, people donated time to pull the event together and cook the dinner. The journalism department, where he studied, did an insert in the student paper, using some of his photos. Last Monday, mother and son went to Joplin and had art photography framed for the auction.
A half-hour into the fundraiser some 175 people had been fed, filling the gymnasium and spilling into the Sunday school rooms. Silent auction items from a basket of movies, to a puppy ringed the walls at Banner Church of the Nazarene.
Curtis missed the event. He went to St. Louis on Wednesday and is in the hospital there. Family and friends expect him to be released soon and put on the transplant list early in the week.
“He really wanted to be here, but then he got sick,” said friend Jimmy Otten.
When they realized that Curtis would need the surgery, Otten said he and others immediately began to raise funds for him to stay in St. Louis. Otten said Curtis was excited and in good spirits.
Things that needed to happen before he could have the surgery have just fallen into place.
“Just being able to breathe again is what he’s excited for,” Otten said.
Hundreds showed up Saturday night at a fundraiser to benefit Curtis Almeter.
The 26-year-old suffers from cystic fibrosis. Funds raised will help pay for transport and living expenses while he awaits lung transplant surgery at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis.
“It’s really, really heartwarming and amazing,” said Karen Almeter, Curtis’ mom.
She was worried that they wouldn’t get the event pulled together. They had only five weeks to plan, but friends kicked in at church and at Crowder College where she works and where Curtis graduated this spring.
Someone did a flier, people donated time to pull the event together and cook the dinner. The journalism department, where he studied, did an insert in the student paper, using some of his photos. Last Monday, mother and son went to Joplin and had art photography framed for the auction.
A half-hour into the fundraiser some 175 people had been fed, filling the gymnasium and spilling into the Sunday school rooms. Silent auction items from a basket of movies, to a puppy ringed the walls at Banner Church of the Nazarene.
Curtis missed the event. He went to St. Louis on Wednesday and is in the hospital there. Family and friends expect him to be released soon and put on the transplant list early in the week.
“He really wanted to be here, but then he got sick,” said friend Jimmy Otten.
When they realized that Curtis would need the surgery, Otten said he and others immediately began to raise funds for him to stay in St. Louis. Otten said Curtis was excited and in good spirits.
Things that needed to happen before he could have the surgery have just fallen into place.
“Just being able to breathe again is what he’s excited for,” Otten said.
