30-Pack of Beer Sells For Nearly $17,000 in Eastern Iowa

There is nothing quite as heartwarming as the way small communities come together when someone who lives there needs a hand. This story is about as good as it gets.

In mid-April of 2021, Taylor Frank of Riverside gave birth to a baby girl she and her husband Zach named Ellie. Right away, doctors realized something was wrong and transported Ellie to the University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital in Iowa City.

Doctors confirmed Ellie was experiencing hundreds of seizures, according to information shared from Taylor, via the hospital. Doctors tried everything they could to stop them and, after about a week, there was an improvement. However, it would be weeks before Ellie didn't experience seizures for at least 24 hours.

Ellie's diagnosis is unclear at this time but her mom says it "is likely linked to a rare Grin1 mutation." She is trach and vent dependent, and her family says she has damage to her brain, along with "multiple other diagnoses."

As you can imagine, this strong, loving family has very large medical bills. That's where the people of Riverside, and a 30-pack of Busch Light come in.

A benefit for the Frank family was held on July 31 at VFW Post 6414 in Riverside. There was a poker run, cornhole tournament, meals, raffles, and a live auction with more than 200 items.

One of the items in the live auction was a 30-pack of Busch Light, packed in ice, in a cooler. Auctioneer Donovan Yoder started taking bids, selling the beer and cooler to Brett and MacKinze Walsh for $550. That's not where the fundraiser ended, though.

Brett Walsh took a beer out of the cooler and told Yoder to auction it off again. Kathy Ockenfels bought it and did what Walsh had done before her. It happened again, and again, with each person paying at least $500. After the cooler and its shrinking beer count were auctioned off 17 times, the total amount of money raised from an ice-cold cooler filled with a 30-pack of Busch Light stood at a total of $16,925.

As I said at the beginning, there's nothing as heartwarming as the way small communities come together when someone needs a hand. Riverside showed on July 31 that they're one of the absolute best there is.