contributed photo Bob Pederson, an avid fisherman, is expected to undergo a bone-marrow transplant soon. The 11th annual Joe Boys Poker Run event Aug. 13 will raise money to help Pederson’s family pay for some of his medical-related costs.

Bob Pederson of St. Joseph, who is battling cancer, will be the recipient of funds raised by the Joe Boys Poker Run after its Saturday, Aug. 13 fundraising event.

The 11th annual poker run will start and end at the La Playette Bar in St. Joseph. Registration starts at 10 a.m. at the bar, and the four-city motorcycle trek will begin at 11 a.m. from La Playette. Anyone is invited to join the run, even people who want to drive vehicles other than motorcyles.

Each year the proceeds from the poker run are given to someone who is suffering from cancer. Bob Pederson was diagnosed last year with a very rare form of cancer known as myelodysplastic syndrome. There are dysfunctional cells produced in his Pederson’s bone marrow, and he will soon require a bone-marrow transplant. In preparation  for the transplant, he has had to endure months of chemotherapy and will need even more of that treatment, plus radiation, after the transplant.

He and his wife, Janet, will have to rent an apartment for three months near the Fairview University of Minnesota Medical Center in Minneapolis. That is where the transplant will be done. The apartment-rental cost will be yet another financial burden for the Pedersons. They will stay at that apartment as he recovers and will make daily visits to the hospital for check-ups and ongoing post-implant treatments.

Anyone who wants to go along on the poker run should come to La Playette bar in downtown St. Joseph and get there by 10 a.m. so they can register. A free-will offering is welcomed to participate in the run.

At 11 p.m., participants will drive from St. Joseph to the following places: Rudolph’s Redneck Roost in Holdingford; Doochies Bad Company Bar in St. Martin; Red Goat Bar & Grill in Watkins; and Stoney’s Bar in Rockville. Then the travelers will return to La Playette in St. Joseph.

At each stop they visit, participants will each draw a playing card. The number and suit of that card will then be stamped on each card that each driver was given at La Playette.

At the end of the ride (about 4-5 p.m.), back in St. Joseph, the riders will submit their cards at La Playette. The winner, the one with the best card “hand,” will then be presented with a grand prize. Any money and gifts for the prize are above and beyond funds raised for the recipient with cancer, in this case Bob Pederson of St. Joseph.

Josh Schmitz of St. Joseph started the Joe Boys Poker Run 11 years ago. There is a committee of about a dozen people every year that plans the event and finds an appropriate cancer patient to receive the proceeds.

Schmitz told the St. Joseph Newsleader last week there is no way he could continue the event without the dedicated people on that committee and all the people who gladly participate in the run and raise money for it.

If anyone wants to donate, go to the Joe Boys Poker Run Facebook page at joeboyspokerrun. Then scroll down until you see in small print “Please use this link to make a donation to the Joe Boys.” Click on that link.

Dalman was born and raised in South St. Cloud, graduated from St. Cloud Tech High School, then graduated from St. Cloud State University with a degree in English (emphasis on American and British literature) and mass communications (emphasis on print journalism). He studied in London, England for a year (1980-81) where he concentrated on British literature, political science, the history of Great Britain and wrote a book-length study of the British writer V.S. Naipaul. Dalman has been a reporter and weekly columnist for more than 30 years and worked for 16 of those years for the Alexandria Echo Press.

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