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Cattlemen’s Ball co-chairmen Matt Monheiser, left, and Mike Behrends, right, with host family John and Laurie Widdowson. Behrends is a lymphoma survivor who was treated successfully at UNMC. |
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From right: University of Nebraska President James B. Milliken, Joe Selig and Tom Thompson of the NU Foundation, and Keith Swarts, director of business services at UNMC, roll up their sleeves for prostate screenings at the UNMC tent at the Cattlemen’s Ball. Theresa Woodrum, manager of The Nebraska Medical Center Oncology Hematology Special Care Unit, looks on. Woodrum was one of several medical center employees who volunteered to help with the Cattlemen’s Ball. |
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Gov. Dave Heineman, right, with auctioneer Dave Dickey of Sidney at the Cattlemen’s Ball on Saturday. During an auction at the ball, a dinner for eight with Heineman in the Governor’s Mansion sold for $4,000. |
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Cattlemen’s Ball co-chairman Mike Behrends with Lana Batt and Eppley Cancer Center Director Ken Cowan, M.D., Ph.D. In 1999, Batt’s late husband, Bradd was treated for lymphoma at UNMC, but he was struck in 2004 with pancreatic cancer, which took his life last fall. |
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Doc Foster of Hyannis ropes a calf during the working cow horse competition at the Cattlemen’s Ball. The event showcased the skills of horses trained to round up cattle. |
The comments came in 2004 as Behrends — a rancher from Lodgepole — sought treatment at UNMC after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
“Dr. Armitage said to me, ‘give me six weeks of your time, and I’ll give you the rest of your life,'” Behrends said. “That’s just what he did.”
After a successful bone-marrow transplant at UNMC and chemotherapy treatments left Behrends cancer-free, he was approached by John and Laurie Widdowson about serving as a co-chairman of the 2007 Cattlemen’s Ball, which the couple was considering hosting on the ranch they run near Lodgepole.
“I asked him because I knew he was the kind of guy who gets things done,” Laurie Widdowson said. “I did know that he had had cancer but was not aware of his ties to UNMC.”
To Behrends, the opportunity to chair the Cattlemen’s Ball, which showcases the benefits of beef in a healthy diet and also raises money for cancer research at UNMC’s Eppley Cancer Center, seemed preordained.
“I believe I survived so I could help with this event,” said Behrends, as he choked back tears on Saturday at the 10th Annual Cattlemen’s Ball. “I believe I was meant to be here so I could help others survive. That’s what this is all about.”
More than 3,300 people ventured to Lodgepole — which is about 20 miles east of Sidney — for the ball on Friday and Saturday at The SandPoint Cattle Company, LLC — a ranch owned by Ray and Mary Alger and operated by the Widdowsons.
The ball featured several auctions, a working cow horse event, a wine tasting, a style show and a concert by country music star Jo Dee Messina.
Among the auctions was the sale of 10 angus cattle embryos, which sold for a combined total of $82,700. As in years past, 90 percent of the proceeds from this year’s ball — including the embryo auction — will go to support research at the UNMC Eppley Cancer Center. The total amount raised at the ball will be announced at a later date. In each of the past two years, the ball generated more than $600,000 for cancer research.
As an event co-chairman, Behrends said he was grateful and impressed by the way the western Nebraska community supported the Cattlemen’s Ball.
From volunteers who served food, acted as security and performed other duties, to artists who donated work to be auctioned to raise money for UNMC, Behrends said he was touched by the community’s willingness to lend a hand.
“I was just awestruck by how people gave of themselves to make the event a success,” Behrends said.
Behrends related the story of one volunteer who said he wanted to work on this year’s ball to help fight cancer and to “raise the dollar” that may allow researchers to find a cure for the disease.
Ken Cowan, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Eppley Cancer Center, echoed Behrends’ sentiments.
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The 2008 Cattlemen’s Ball will be hosted by the Niewohner Cattle Company near Albion in north central Nebraska on June 7-8.