Benefit motorcycle swap meet is Saturday

A poster seeking help for a 27-year-old Poplar Bluff husband and father fighting leukemia became a message from God to one area man.

John Penaflor feels God directed him to help Zach Dobbs, 27, his wife Kayla and their baby.

Dobbs’ father, Michael Dobbs of Little Rock, Arkansas, presently is at St. Louis University Medical Center where his son was transferred Sunday by Air Evac Lifeteam to the intensive care unit. The younger Dobbs was diagnosed July 22 with acute myeloid leukemia.

“He’s in pretty critical state right now because he had an acute infection,” Michael Dobbs said. “We’re just hopeful for a good outcome.”

Penaflor hopes his and others’ love for motorcycles helps raise funds for the family. Penaflor is hosting a Motorcycle Swap Meet from 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. Saturday at the Black River Coliseum parking lot.

Admission for sellers is $7 and the public is $1.

“It seemed like the thing to do. God just touched my heart and put it on my shoulders,” said Penaflor, who felt God saying, “Hey, you know what? Help this young man. That’s why I’m doing it.”

Penaflor, who recently met Zach, said, “My first instinct was to have the event because I ride a motorcycle with the Christian Motorcycle Association (CMA) in Poplar Bluff.”

“I really don’t know him,” Penaflor said. “He seems like a very nice young man that’s going through some stuff in this world that I don’t wish on anybody. He’s roadworthy. That kind of a good young man that’s trying to start a family and he could use all the help he can get.”

Penaflor remembers when his own father battled leukemia.

“I’ve got a soft spot in my heart because I know what he went through. I started asking questions. I saw my dad go through it back in the 70s. I felt when I saw that poster, and I saw this young man, ‘I gotta do something.’ I’m not looking for a pat on the back. God said help this young man. That’s why I’m doing it. No other reason.”

The swap meet will offer cyclists an opportunity to buy, sell and/or swap parts, but the most important thing is it will allow them to help the Dobbs family.

“I have been riding motorcycles for some 40 years, and I have motorcycle parts accumulated,” he said. “I thought, what we need here is a motorcycle swap meet where motorcycle enthusiasts can, if they have spare parts, get rid of them, sell them, or maybe if they’re building a bike, they can go and look for parts.”

He’s been talking to people in the Poplar Bluff and Doniphan areas. There’s a lot of motorcycle riders, who have a bunch of parts that either they would like to sell or are looking for parts that they need.

The admission fees as well as donations will “go to him and his family because the economic stress on them,” Penaflor said.

Penaflor met the Dobbs family recently at a cornhole tournament to raise money for Zach.

“I like to think this is a tight-knit, small city and a lot of people know each other. If they are just passing by the area in front of the coliseum, if they would like to come and donate change or donate dollar bills or whatever, it would well benefit the family and it would say a lot for the brotherhood of the community. There’ll be jars equipped for taking donations. We really shouldn’t wait until it happens to our family members, especially in a small community like Poplar Bluff. I would hope they would take a minute and donate. That would be a blessing it’s better to give than to receive.”

Michael Dobbs said, the family is thankful for “the support and the love and prayers everybody has given. We’re thankful for the community and support they’ve given the young man and it’s just been phenomenal.”

Michael Dobbs added, “the care he’s received at St. Louis University has been outstanding. All this occurred when Kayla was still pregnant and hadn’t delivered the baby. The nurses on the oncology unit did a baby shower. Zach was discharged before they can do that, but when we came up for his follow up appointment, after he was discharged in September, they had these huge bags of items for the baby.

“And Dr. Boyle and her staff here at St. Louis University have been just phenomenal to us. The St. Louis VA has supported us with putting us up through the Fisher House Foundation with some lodging, and we’re very appreciative of that so we can be close.”

The elder Dobbs works for the Department of Veterans Affairs in Little Rock, Arkansas.

The younger Dobbs is employed by the Missouri Department of Transportation.