How to go
What: Randy's Ride Poker Run & Benefit
When: Sat, July 11
Poker run sign-up: 9:30 to 11 a.m.
Where: 230 Club, 131 E. Main St., Eaton
Cost: $15 entry, plus $5 for an extra rider
How to go
What: Benefit
When: 6 p.m. to midnight, live band at 8 p.m., with raffle and silent auction
Where: Eaton American Legion, 1000 U.S. 35 W.
Cost: $10 Entry per person
To donate: To drop off monetary donations or silent auction items, call Sherrie Howard at (937) 336-2243.
Information and registration: Contact Heidi Flory at (937) 533-0633 or e-mail 2heidi@aol.com.
EATON — As his disease progresses, Preble County farmer Randy Flory is discovering he can’t do as much as he used to.
But the avid motorcyclist will be along for the ride this weekend for Randy’s Ride Poker Run & Benefit to help raise money for his treatment. Later, there will be an auction.
Flory, 36, of Eaton thought it was odd when he didn’t have enough strength to push a button to get into his old truck. But amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) symptoms are so slight that they can be ignored.
Married to Heidi, a nurse in the neurology unit at Atrium Medical Center in Middletown, and the father of two daughters, Hayley, 12 and Sydney, 7, Flory went through two years of uncertainty before being diagnosed.
“It is not an easy process to go through diagnosing ALS,” Heidi said. “There is no definitive test for ALS. They have to test you for everything and rule everything out.”
But finally, they got both a diagnosis and a second opinion.
There is no cure or treatment for ALS, also called Lou Gehrig’s Disease, but one drug is approved to slow it down. Alternative therapies are not paid by insurance.
Sherri (Stevens) Howard, an Eaton High School schoolmate of Flory, came up with the idea of the benefit.
“He means a lot to everyone. He is good people.”
Randy has always loved farming and now farms more than 300 acres and runs a hog farm — but he may not be able to do that much longer. “As the disease progresses, you just don’t know what your capability will be or what you will be able to do,” Heidi said. “Physically, he has lost a great portion of the use of the muscles in his left arm and hand.”
He doesn’t have use of fine motor skills like those needed to button a shirt or pick up a nut or bolt.
“That makes it difficult for him to work on equipment,” his wife said.
Besides his love for his family and farming, he is an avid motorcyclist. “He will be in the ride. He is looking forward to that,” said Heidi, who will ride on the back of their Harley.
“He has done some adaptations to the Harley to make it a little easier to ride,” Heidi said.
But this could be the last year he’ll be able to ride.
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