NIOBRARA, Neb. — Thirteen years ago, Ron Fettig and Bill Salmen purchased the Blue Moon Resort near Lazy River Acres.
"I had decided by the age of 40 I wanted to have a little place like this," said Fettig, who actually was 41 then but still waiting to fulfill his dream.
Thirteen years later, flooding from the Missouri River has taken a toll on Fettig's dream. With only a day and a half notice last summer, Fettig was forced to move everything he owned out of his home and resort before the Missouri River covered it with floodwater.
"I have a lot of friends," Fettig said with a laugh. "It's always good to have a lot of friends."
He needed those friends who showed up from Plainview, Norfolk, Omaha and many towns in between to help move things to drier ground.
They backed up a semitrailer to the front door of the resort and walked everything that wasn't bolted to the floor up the ramp. They unloaded his possessions in storage sheds and buildings all over Knox County.
"Every day I checked my home and the resort in a boat," Fettig said. He even taxied other residents of the Lazy River Acres community by boat to check how their residences were standing up.
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After the water releases were reduced in the dam system above and below, it took about three weeks before Fettig and partner Salmen could get into the resort to assess the damage and begin rebuilding.
The smell was horrible. The men had to completely gut the inside down to the studs. The mold needed to be treated, and generators were brought in to run fans to dry it out.
During the renovation process, Fettig started hacking and coughing. The first diagnosis was walking pneumonia. After all, there was the mold in the building and the smell was atrocious.
But his hacking got worse.
He found himself in Yankton, S.D., on Dec. 2, where the doctors gave him more bad news. He was diagnosed with lung cancer.
"I was so ready to kick 2011 out the door," Fettig said.
He has completed his third course of treatments and is halfway through the schedule. He is doing well, he said.
When the other shoe dropped and everyone realized Fettig had cancer, his friends decided they weren't finished helping him.
"He had so much happen this last year and he just keeps on cooking in that resort," said Ruth Walton of Creighton. "We just needed to help."
A benefit is planned Feb. 25 at the Blue Moon Resort to help Fettig with all the expenses and medical bills he now has to deal with. There will be food, which has all been donated, silent auction items, regular auction items and music.
Phone calls continue to come in with items for the silent and regular auctions. The items run the gamut from a hunting knife and a four-man hunt to bales of alfalfa hay and yard art. The generosity has been amazing, Walton said.
"People know about all our hardships — what we've lost," Fettig said. "With their help we will make the Blue Moon bigger and better. I couldn't get through this without them."
Fettig and his wife, Julie, had just moved into a new cabin Ron Fettig had built by hand before the flooding. They burned it to the ground after the floodwaters receded, and he plans on building again on the same spot.
"There is a lot of ugliness still, but it will go away," Fettig said. "Everyone is coming back, and I am always thinking positive. I have too much to live for, and I'm not giving up."
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