A benefit for the Krasniqi family, owners of Roma Italian Restaurant, will be from 3-9 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 25 at Roma.
Nineteen-year-old Dijon Krasinqi, a nephew of the owners, was recently diagnosed with a rare form of cancer called Ewing Sarcoma.
Paige Smith is a former employee of Roma and is helping with the event that she learned about when Donnie Hyde made a post about it on Facebook.
“He wanted to get a group together and figure out how we can raise some money and help the family,” Smith said. “So, I jumped on that opportunity being a family friend of them all. I showed up (for a meeting) and there was a huge group of people here. There was just all kinds of different businesses and friends of Roma and Jimmy (Gzim Krasniqi) and just finding different ways that we can support them. So, Don got us all together and we started talking about raffle items we could do and auction items.”
Buffet-style dine-in and takeouts will be available with all proceeds benefiting the family to help with Dijon’s expenses. The cost is $20 per plate.
Smith said Dijon came to the U.S. to work with with his uncle Gzim and after working for a while, he was diagnosed with the rare form of cancer.
“Noboby around this area and the Oklahoma and Texas area can help him with that and so he’s now staying with some family in New York City to get treated,” Smith said. “We’re trying to find some ways to help with just the expenses that come with all of that.”
There will be many auction items and also a raffle for a rifle, golf clubs and more. There will be a drawing for $10,000 in cash. Only 200 tickets will be sold for this drawing at $100 each.
“I hope the community comes out and supports Jimmy and his family as much as he supported the rest of Durant and our community,” Smith said. “Anytime that anybody ever needs help, Jimmy’s one of the first ones to jump at the opportunity, so I hope that we can show up as well for him as he does for us.”