A Journey to Help Two Wonderful Women

In May of 1994 I graduated from Tarkio High School with 22 great individuals.  Unfortunately two of my classmates, Tasha (Beason) Berls and Stacie (Mather) Knop, have been diagnosed with cancer and are currently fighting to knock cancer on its ass.   . 

As you can imagine, Tasha and Stacie are going through a great deal with chemo, surgeries, etc. and they need our help.  A few of Tasha and Stacie’s friends and old classmates (Darin Lee, Dr. Patrick Martin, Bryan Caudill, and Trevor Houghton) are doing a few triathlons over the summer and we thought this would be a perfect opportunity to raise awareness about Tasha and Stacie’s fights.  The last triathlon we are doing this year is the Half Ironman in Branson on Sept. 18^th and between now and then we are going to try and raise as much money as we can for Tasha and Stacie. 

As part of our fundraising efforts we will be selling RED (Tarkio High School Pride) wristbands that carry the phrase, “Tri For Tasha & Stacie”  The suggested price for the wristbands is $3 for adults and $2 for children.  If you can give more we will gladly accept it.  We  have 600 wristbands right now (400 adult & 200 children) and we hope to be ordering more soon.  

You can donate money or purchase wristbands by making a donation at any Platte Valley Bank in the Kansas City area or make a donation at the Farmers State Bank in Tarkio.  If you choose to make a donation at one of the banks please email me at TriForTashaAndStacie@gmail.com and I will make sure we get the wristbands to you.    You can also mail a check to 9754 N. Ash Ave., Suite 143, Kansas City, MO 64157.  Please make all checks payable to the “Tasha Berls and Stacie Knop Benefit Fund.”  All proceeds will be divided evenly between Tasha and Stacie on Sept. 18^th for them to use however needed; medical bills, travel expenses, etc.  My hope is they both are in great health and use the money to take their families on a well-deserved vacation.

We will keep you posted on our fund raising efforts on this website and if we are feeling ambitious we may put some training updates on here also.  I know there are a few of you that would love to see pictures of Houghton in spandex. 

Here are a few of the triathlons we will be competing in honor of Tasha and Stacie:

May 15^th---Heritage Park Sprint Triathlon in Olathe, KS

June 18^th---Topeka Tinman (Long Course) in Topeka, KS

Aug. 13---Railsplitter Intermediate Triathlon in Petersburg, Illinois

Sept. 18^th—Branson Half-Ironman in Branson, MO

Anyone is welcome to join us. 

You can follow Tasha’s fight at www.tashasfight.blogspot.com and you can follow Stacie’s fight at (http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/staciematherknop). 

Thanks in advance for your help.

Eric Levings
Pat Martin
Trevor Houghton
Bryan Caudill
Darin Lee

*These donations are not tax deductible.