Photo by Richard Gwin

Orville Calhoon, Lawrence, goes up on two wheels Sunday at a tractor pull he organized in Atchison as a benefit for Brice Sowers, a 14-year-old boy who has brain cancer. The event, which drew 100 tractors from four states, raised $3,500 for Brice.

Photo by Richard Gwin

Frances Strieby, Atchison, left, talks to more than 100 tractor pull participants on hand for a benefit Sunday in Atchison. The tractor pull benefited Brice Sowers, center, who has brain cancer, and his father Ed Sowers, right.

Atchison — Orville Calhoon can't stand to see life stomp on people.

So the 71-year-old Lawrence resident has figured out a way to help pull people out of major troubles.

On Sunday, Calhoon organized his second stock garden tractor pull and benefit auction to raise funds for someone in need. Brice Sowers, 14, an Atchison High School ninth-grader, has suffered from the effects of a brain tumor for four years. The event was at the VFW in Atchison and raised about $3,500.

Calhoon and his wife, Charlene, have known Brice and his father, Ed, for several years through participating in area garden tractor pulls. Calhoon had managed an auto parts store in Hiawatha until he retired and moved to Lawrence in 1989.

Since Brice was diagnosed with cancer, Ed Sowers has only been able to work part-time for a heating and cooling company while he balances taking care of his son. After 30 radiation treatments this year, the tumor had shrunk to about the size of an eraser on a pencil, but Brice's future is still uncertain, Ed Sowers said.

For most of his life, Brice has loved the competition of hopping onto a tractor and accelerating to pull a weighted sled dozens of feet.

"He was always such a respectable little kid," Calhoon said of Brice.

On Sunday morning, after a prayer service, the engines revved up. About 150 adult and child competitors traveled from the area and as far away as Nebraska, Missouri and southeast Kansas.

"Everybody's pulling for Brice," said Larry Baldwin, of Kidder, Mo.

Brice was a celebrity as he visited with the hundreds of friends and enthusiastic spectators.

"Instead of a tractor pull, it's like going to be a family reunion," Brice said.

He also was able to sit in the driver's seat of a 900-pound tractor, scream down the course and win that class competition. A giant trophy found its way into his arms as a surprise.

Calhoon said it was all about giving Brice a thrill. He has a soft spot for the boy because Calhoon suffered a head injury after a 1988 car accident near Holton.

In preparation for the event, Calhoon worked for several weeks with his wife and Carrie Sowers, Brice's cousin, to get donations from businesses and organizations in both Lawrence and Atchison. Several area organizations also helped. Items in the auction included a basketball autographed by the Kansas University men's basketball team.

Last year, Calhoon organized a similar fundraiser in Missouri for the family of a woman who died of cancer. That event raised $4,500 to help pay for a funeral and a head stone.

"Every nickel" of Sunday's benefit money will help the Sowerses with various bills, Calhoon said.

Brice calls Calhoon "his honorary grandpa," and the Lawrence resident also could be seen helping out the smallest children with their tractors.

"We're just blessed to have such good friends," Ed Sowers said.

Calhoon said the tractor pull races tend to draw a crowd of people who have become close friends.

"I'm really pleased to know that there's so many good Christian people, caring people, willing to help when somebody needs it," he said.

- Staff writer George Diepenbrock can be reached at 832-7144.