Benefit for Local Country Musician, Kenny Powell

It's interesting who your run into, and where. The other night at the Eric Church Concert I struck up a little conversation with a gal sitting next to me. One thing led to another and soon we found some common ground.

Turns out her friend with her at the concert that night is the daughter of Kenny Powell.

Now, I love country music. I play it every day on the radio on Kickin' Country. But Kenny has lived and LOVED country music for years. He's loved it enough to play in several country bands you've probably seen locally. He's an inductee of the Legends of South Dakota Country Music, played with Ken Mellons, Motongator Joe and Billy Gant.

Now, it's time for us country music lovers to come help Kenny.

Kenny's daughter Amanda wrote this up for us:

Kenny Powell is a devoted husband to Jeanette for 37 years now. They have 4 daughters and 14 grandchildren together!!! Kenny is an amazing friend, loving son and a pain in the butt brother. In addition to all that, he is also one heck of a musician with a genuine love for country music!

 

He has been in many local bands, such as 'Merle Powell and the New Men,' 'High Country,' 'Slackwater Jack' and currently, 'The Night Raiders.'

 

Kenny is one the most selfless guys you will ever meet and is always ready to give a helping hand to anyone who needs it, willingly and happily, expecting nothing in return.

Towards the end of October of 2014, Kenny went into the doctors office to get a X-ray done on his shoulder since it was bothering him. The X-ray showed nothing wrong with his shoulder, however, it did reveal a small mass on his right lung.

 

After several tests, the mass was confirmed as Small Cell Lung Cancer. This a very aggressive cancer, spreads very quickly and it is not a common lung cancer to have.

Kenny and his wife, along with their doctors, decided to fight! He is currently undergoing radiation 5 days a week and each treatment costs around $2,500. He is also undergoing chemotherapy 3 days a week and each treatment of that costs around $6,000.

 

Kenny has his last radiation session on January 23rd, 2015 (he will continue on with the Chemotherapy for the time being) and we are hoping the cancer has at least stopped spreading or if we're really lucky the cancer cells are dying due to treatments (fingers crossed)!

 

Now, as you can imagine, all these treatments and tests are really expensive and add up really fast! My sisters, all of Kenny's friends, loved ones and I want to do what we can to help our parents in any way possible, after everything they have done and sacrificed for us and asked for nothing in return. We are setting up a benefit in Kenny's honor in hopes to raise some money to help them with their financial burden and to raise awareness about lung cancer.

The benefit is set to take place February 15, 2015 at the VFW on Minnesota Ave. from 2:00 PM - 8:00 PM. There will be a silent auction on a wide variety of objects, raffle tickets, free will donation meal and live musical entertainment that is fun for all ages!!

 

In addition, we have set up a GoFundMe page (GoFundMe.com/KennyPowell77) and have raised a little over $2,000. We have also set up an account through any Home Federal Bank, under the name of The Kenny Powell Benefit Account.

 

If you could help us get the word out about the benefit, we would be so grateful and appreciative!!! Maybe..you would want to even help sponsor the benefit to help out a fellow musician/music lover! ;-)

Thank you for your time, thoughts and your consideration!!! Anything is greatly appreciated!!