Benefit ride scheduled to raise funds for Stan Frank's cancer treatment

Stank Frank isn’t used to being the one receiving help. 

He’s usually the one giving it, having worked in public safety and emergency services for nearly 25 years.

Throughout his career, Frank has worked in fire, EMS, and as a coroner. He even served as a reserve officer for the Spencer Police Department for a few years. 

“I just felt like I wanted to give to the community,” he said of his service. 

He currently works for the state as an Emergency Preparedness Manager, which he says is essentially a district EMS manager, and he serves as chief deputy for the Owen County Coroner’s Office. 

And this spring, Frank was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer. 

“It’s pretty overwhelming,” he said of the support he has received throughout the community. “I haven’t asked for any of it.” 

He continued saying it has been with mixed emotions.

“I’m not one to take help a lot, so that makes it difficult,” he said. “I’m not one to ask somebody to come and help me. That’s just the way I’ve always been.”

He said he still won’t ask for help but that he has had a lot of support and offers to help.

The help offered in fundraising to alleviate the financial burden has stretched far and wide, including a t-shirt fundraiser from the Greencastle Fire Department and a former EMS district manager from Vincennes including Frank in an existing benefit ride there. 

“He’s just got so many irons in the fire of public service,” Shelby Hershberger said. 

Hershberger is the current Owen County Coroner, and she was with Frank in the coroner’s office when he received the test results confirming it was cancer. It happened to be the anniversary of when Shaylyn Ammerman’s body was found. 

“I just kind of like ignorantly assumed that he was wiping tears from his eyes because it was the anniversary of her death,” Hershberger said. 

She added that there are dreamcatchers above their desks that were Shaylyn’s. She said Frank told her the news and she was halfway across the room to comfort him. 

“This is such a Stan thing to do. He sticks his hand out. He says, ‘Don’t you come any closer to me, because I’ll punch you right square in the nose. You’re gonna make me cry. Under all those layers of tattoos and toughness, he is a real big teddy bear,” Hershberger said. “It’s hard watching somebody go from someone that you kind of view as a superhero into a position of vulnerability. It’s hard for him to admit to it.”

Frank said that he’s noticed that sometimes others don’t know what to say.

“You’ve probably seen a few posts about if you come and ask me, I’m going to tell you I’m okay, because I truly am. You know, I see people out there every day getting treatments like I do, and a lot worse off than I am. I don’t feel bad. I’m not tired,” he said.

He said detection of his cancer wasn’t because he wasn’t feeling well, and that if it wasn’t caught early through other testing, he still would not know he has cancer, based on how he feels physically.

“You get told that you’ve got a terminal illness that isn’t curable but it’s treatable. That’s a real eye-opener,” Frank said. “The choice is you live or you lay down somewhere and die and give up, so I don’t have ‘give up’ in me, so that’s where it’s at.”

Frank also noted that he doesn’t wish to be treated differently. He said that those with terminal illnesses don’t want to feel like they’re different. 

“I’ve always been deemed that grumpy old ba****d, but that’s the thing, I’m not going to change that,” he said. “I’m going to be the same person regardless. It doesn’t matter.”

Frank said that since he has worked to treat every day as if it were his last. 

“They keep using the term treatable but not curable.. I don’t know that I’m going to die tomorrow. I don’t plan on dying tomorrow,” he said. “You’ve got to live everything to the fullest. Some of those things that you were like, I might do it tomorrow, you better just go ahead and do it.”

He also said to listen to the small voice encouraging you to go talk to someone else.

“It always seems like when I reach out to those people, when I think about it, there was a good reason,” he said. “You’ve got to live every day because tomorrow’s never promised.”

Hershberger has planned a benefit ride and fundraiser to assist in expenses related to his treatment. 

The fundraiser will start with the benefit ride, which includes Jeeps, at 10 a.m. on July 26. The cost is $25, with the starting place being the Masonic Lodge in Spencer, located at 361 N. Harrison St. While the ride will end at noon, lunch for those who would like to support the cause will begin being served from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the lodge. There will also be raffles and a silent auction. Those with questions should contact Hershberger at 812-821-0057.

There is also a t-shirt fundraiser organized by Hershberger through Bonfire and a GoFundMe organized by Linda Terrell, Frank’s mom.

“Stan is a person who pours his whole self into the community. He plays Santa, free of charge, shows up and plays Santa for anybody who wants him to show up, and goes to nursing homes and the school,” Hershberger said. “I just feel like he’s a really deserving person, and he’s never asked for help from anyone, ever. I really feel like the community owes it to him and that we, as an office, owe it to him, to show him how much he’s appreciated, and for him to know that we support him in the same way that he supports so many other people.”