During the first 30 minutes of his benefit supper and auction on March 6 at the Girod Family Auction building in Middletown, Grayson Von Vain was full of energy.

The 5-year-old was walking around the building looking at all of the auction items ready to be sold.

“He’s on a mission looking at everything,” said Tasha Von Vain, Grayson’s mother.

There were huge tables full of items from popcorn machines to farm toys at the auction. When asked what his favorite item was, Grayson responded, “Everything.”

The benefit supper and auction was held to support Grayson, who was born with spina bifida and hydrocephalus. The dinner menu included fish, cole slaw, fries, baked beans and homemade apple pie. The auction started at 7 p.m. and lasted for several hours. All of the proceeds went towards the Von Vain family to help pay for medical bills. The Von Vains live Middletown on the Audrain County border.

“We didn’t get it organized,” Tasha said. “We had some really good friends of ours who decided to put it on for us with Greyson’s recent surgery and us being back and forth to St. Louis numerous times. So they set it all up with my mother and father-in-law, our good friends with the Girods, and they got everything set up.”

The event was called Roar for Grayson. T-shirts were made by Snappy Graphics in Montgomery City.

“They asked Grayson what he was interested in and he said dinosaurs and astronauts,” Tasha said. “Of course, they asked me. I said (to them) whatever he wants as long as we incorporate his two ribbons, the spina bifida ribbon and the hydrocephalus ribbon.”

Tasha said she was pleased with the turnout. Numerous people from Montgomery and Audrain counties and other communities attended the event.

“Grayson has a lot of supporters in our community who have been great to us,” Tasha said.

Tasha was eight months pregnant with Grayson when she found out that her son had spina bifida and hydrocephalus. Spina bifida is a neutral tube defect that affects the spine and spinal cord and hydrocephalus is water in the brain.

“He had his back repaired the day he was born,” Tasha said. “Then, he had his shunt placed 15 days after that.”

Grayson recently had surgery to replace a shunt – a cerebrospinal fluid drainage pathway – in his brain.

“He recently had a shunt failure,” Tasha said. “He needed to have a shunt revision. They went in and replaced his shunt and he had ETV (Endoscopic Third Ventriculostomy) surgery, which is where they drill a hole in the third ventricle to help the fluid drain because he had excess fluid in his brain with his shunt failure. So we were in the hospital. They told us to plan on a week to two weeks and he was out a little over three days. So, he did really good.”

Tasha said she and her family are doing their best to help Grayson – whose birthday is on June 29 – enjoy a normal life.

“We work hard every day,” said Tasha, who is over five months pregnant with her second child. “He goes to therapy often. We do therapy at home and have to do several things. He’s like any other kid. He needs a little extra help here and there.”

Tasha said Grayson enjoys staying active despite his illness.

“He loves the outdoors and anything to do with his dad (Dustin) obviously,” she said. “They’re always working in the shop or in the garage working on stuff. He loves the outdoors, hunting and fishing.”

Many of Grayson’s family members attended the benefit dinner and auction, including his grandfather, Jim Dowell, who owns Dowell’s Body Shop outside of Wellsville.

Dowell said Grayson “is my precious, valuable thing in the world.”

“He’s a good kid,” he said. “He’s five going on 30. He doesn’t know a stranger. He’s just polite. He always asks how people are. He’s just an all-around, good kid.”