Clifford benefit draws strong support

By Brenda TenBoer

Now that is what living in a small community is all about, a family is in need and caring friends and neighbors band together to do something about it.
A silent auction and other fundraisers Saturday in Basin raised about $8,500 to help defray travel and medical expenses for Muggy Clifford, who has been diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer. Muggy, along with her husband, Todd, own Valley Hardware and have two small children, Avery, 2, and Johnna Lee, 4 months.
Muggy visited with some of the crowd at the silent auction before departing that afternoon on her second of three trips to the Oasis of Hope Hospital in Tijuana, Mexico.
“I’m doing chemotherapy, along with the alternative stuff,” Muggy said. “The hospital is amazing and the staff there is just wonderful.”
Muggy is keeping a positive attitude about her treatments and said that the Lord did not place her in this world with those two babies just to take her back out.
Anne Brundage of Basin, event organizer, said, “That is Muggy, always being upbeat and cheerful. If anyone can beat this thing, it will be her.”
Muggy said that the hospital in Mexico does not accept the Clifford’s medical insurance, but that doctors at a Montana hospital determined there were no treatment options.
“Well… that is just not acceptable,” Muggy said with a smile.
Brundage gave kudos to the community for showing such tremendous support and said that out of the 150 or so auction pieces that were donated, only two or three were left that didn’t sell. One person with a generous heart even gave a Lincoln Continental to be auctioned, but there were no takers on the vehicle with a minimum bid of $2,500 and a suggested selling price of up to four times that amount.
Johnny Gibler of Basin bought a raffle ticket in support of the Bryant family of Basin and won a mountain bike. He turned around and donated the new bicycle for the silent auction for the Clifford family.
“We just had great support from everyone. We figured about $7,000 was made at the auction,” Anne said. “I’ve never been to one before and boy was that place packed. At 6 p.m., at the end of the auction was really fun with all those people standing around.”
Two people each won half of a pig during Saturday’s events, A.W. Smith of Basin and Char Woods of Greybull each stocked their freezers when their numbers were drawn.
Processing for the animal was donated by Basin Processing and Mike Cowan of Basin pitched in with Brundage to purchase the pig for the raffle.
Hamburgers and pork rib dinners were sold through the Stockman’s Bar, raffles for gift certificates were held throughout the day, and raffle tickets for a half of a beef were sold, which netted the extra $1,500.
“We’re still selling tickets on the beef and some guns,” she said. “The drawing date for those is December 22.”
Anne said that to date about $14,000 is in a fund in the bank for the Cliffords and that donations are still being accepted. Checks should be made out to the Clifford benefit fund and mailed to c/o Anne Brundage, P.O. Box 503, Basin, WY 82410.