Friends turn out to support Bob Rider as he waits for a kidney transplant

05/30/2008
Friends turn out to support Bob Rider as he waits for a kidney transplant

On Saturday, May 3, there was a benefit singing, dinner and pie auction for Bob Rider at Liberty Mounds old school gymnasium.
" Bob is on kidney dialysis, three times per week and needs a kidney transplant," said friend and pie auctioneer Jack Selby.

"With no insurance, this can be very costly. It was a wonderful time of singing, food and fellowship while doing something to help someone. We raised around $10,000 dollars for medical expenses. People from all over the Tulsa, Sand Springs, Bixby and Liberty Mounds areas came out to support Bob.
"There were approximately 500 people in attendance, and everyone there was a blessing just for coming out. What a real blessing to give back to someone who is so willing to give of himself to help others.
There's more beauty to Bob's story.
"He hasn't been tested yet," said Bob's mother Mattie, but his other brother wants to give him a kidney. He's (Bob's) on the kidney transplant list."
Mattie said Bob has been very sick and is struggling, but it is something that he's just had to live with. His illness was not caused by diabetes but a disease of unknown origin.
According to one physician, Bob, 42, could have contracted the disease as young as age two.
"Different specialists say different things," says Mattie. "One doctor said it was a reaction to a throat infection. Yet another said whatever reason people give for the illness, they are all guesses.
Mattie said there is a 30 percent chance that the new kidney, when he gets it, could also be attacked, but the family is leaning on faith that this will not happen.
Bob told his mother he would make sure that he's in the other 70 percent.
The event was planned by Debbi Gann. She was praying for Bob one night and woke up wishing that she could do more.
"I just couldn't get it off my mind," she said. "My mind kept turning, and I felt God was asking me to come up with a plan."
From that grew a dinner of grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, singers, a pie and quilt auction and autographed photos and CDs of Brad Paisley, and Carrie Underwood to mention a few.
Many things were donated, said Debbi, and "There were lots of pies!"
Although almost $10,000 was raised at the event, according to Debbi, more checks were written the next day.
Anyone wanting to donate can still to to Citizens Security Bank and put money in the Bob Rider Special Funds savings account. Bob
The Rider family's offices used to be south of Bixby, but they are now located in Collinsville.
"We moved from Memorial 10 years ago," said Mattie. "Now we are manufacturing outdoor fireplaces. We got big enough that we were going to have to get a zoning change if we stayed where we were, so we moved the business." They still live south of Bixby.
Bob is also a youth pastor at Living Water Family Church.

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