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The Dam Rock Station Playing Anything that Rocks!!
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Chris Thesenvitz has dedicated more than 20 years of service to the South Dakota Air National Guard. In 2022, he received a challenging diagnosis that changed the way he lived his life.
“When he came home from a deployment in ’21, he was having some problems. After some PT and some various other things that they tried, they found the cancer,” Chris’s wife Laura Thesenvitz said.
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Chris was diagnosed with chondrosarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer. Medical costs and treatments would become part of a journey unlike anything his family or friends had imagined. Today, Chris uses a wheelchair full-time.
“By watching him or hearing about the news and watching him kind of battle through it himself, it’s hard to see it on him,” Chris’s friend and colleague Ryan Bak said. “He wears a smile pretty well.”
“We worked a lot of night flying, worked every day very closely together, a lot of direct contact. We just became really good friends over the years,” fabrication superintendent Caitlyn Vanderlugt said.
That’s why his “guard” family knew they needed to do something.
“The military family is a pretty close knit unit. All of us wives and spouses are at the deployment homecomings and send offs. So it doesn’t take very long to become more like a family than just people who work together,” Alyssa Cheeseman said.
Live entertainment, a silent auction, and a shooting range event are a few things happening this Saturday at the Military Heritage Alliance to support Chris and his family. Money raised at the event will help with medical expenses and ongoing care.
“We are needing to make some major renovations with our home with the changes in mobility to be able to make it more accessible and adapt to those changes,” Laura said.
Chris has dedicated several years of service to the South Dakota Air National Guard. But this weekend, his friends are dedicating their support to him.
“I just hope we can raise enough funds as possible to help them out as much as possible because they truly are a guard family,” Chris’s friend and colleague Timothy Cheeseman said.
A shooting range event is from 1 to 4 p.m. this Saturday at the Military Heritage Alliance in Sioux Falls. Live music and a silent auction will begin at 5 p.m.
Tickets are $20 per person, and can be purchased at the door or here. Kids 10 years and younger are free. Donations are also welcome.
Rapid City, South Dakota’s only commercial free unedited internet rock radio station; playing a little older rock and mainly newer rock. A fully licensed stream.
This station is part of the Deep Dive Radio Network.
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