Tracy and Kathy Moss, owners of Russell’s Custom Meats.

JOHN DAY — Grant County residents are rallying around a beloved local business owner and longtime resident stricken with an ailment that has bounced him in and out of the hospital since January.

A dinner and auction to benefit Tracy Moss will be held on Oct. 22 in the Trowbridge Pavilion of the Grant County Fairgrounds.

Moss, the owner of Russell’s Custom Meats in Canyon City, has long suffered from a blood infection caused by a bullet that has been lodged in his back for years, according to his wife, Kathy.

Kathy Moss said the condition did not become severe until 2008 after Moss stubbed a toe and doctors amputated it because the infection had spread to the bone. Kathy said Tracy spent three months in the hospital roughly 10 years ago. When Tracy came out of the hospital, Kathy said, the busy couple processed 400 game animals that hunting season on top of their agricultural work.

Russell’s Custom Meats, a Grant County staple, has been the go-to place for local and out-of-town hunters to take their big game animals for processing for decades. But Tracy and Kathy Moss are not only known as local business owners. ongtime friend of the couple and benefit organizer, told the Eagle that Tracy and Kathy are always the first to step up for local causes and fundraisers in the community.

Hitz, who said she regards the couple like family, told the Eagle that while people run in social circles in life, very few get the core to one’s center. Tracy and Kathy, she said, are at the heart of her center and have been for more than two decades.

According to Kathy, when employers struggle to keep a skeleton staff to maintain regular hours, Tracy and Kathy employees are essentially running the business and have been for months now.

Kathy said that there was nothing more Blue Mountain Hospital could do for Tracy at the end of August and life-flighted him out to St. Charles in Bend.

At that point, she said she would get up, spend four hours at Russell’s, drive to Bend, spend two or three hours and get up and do it again. But, as Tracy’s condition worsened and he lost the ability to communicate, stand up, get around and feed himself. She needed to be there with him at that point. At that point, she said, Russells was going to need to close if the employees could not maintain the day-to-day operations of Russells.

They chose to step up, she said.

“If it wasn’t for those guys (community support) and my employees,” Nancy said, “I would not be talking to you coherently today.” “There comes a point in life where you have to do what you have to do, but it does take a village.”

Benefit concert and auction

Nancy said the benefit has come together and turned into something she would have not ever imagined.

Brenn Hill, a singer and songwriter and Andy Nelson, a cowboy poet and humorist, who are currently touring in Utah, immediately agreed to make the trek to Grant County when perform at the benefit.

Hitz said the donations have poured in and include everything from an African Safari, to beef from the Crown Ranch Cattle Company. Hitz said the organizers have a lengthy list of donations from business owners across the globe.

She said the auction and concert will start after a donation-only pulled pork dinner, which will be from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.

Donations can be made for Tracy’s medical expenses at the Bank of Eastern Oregon.