By ROBERT PIERCE
(Liberal) Leader & Times
LIBERAL — This year’s NBC World Series will be one that few, if any, in the Liberal community will forget. After the death of Bee Jay batboy Kaiser Carlile, many people elsewhere likely will keep the memory alive of the 2015 edition of the annual baseball event.
Almost immediately after Kaiser, 9, was pronounced dead at Wichita’s Wesley Medical Center, the outpouring support for his family began with fundraisers popping up seemingly all across America and some even around the globe.
On Aug. 15, a group of area bikers came together at Billy’s Blue Duck BBQ and Ayr Lanes in Liberal for another fundraiser for the Carlile family.
“Cruise for Kaiser” was created by Tanner Tempel, who is originally from Garden City, but now lives in Hays.
Tempel created the event via Facebook shortly before the fundraiser. From there, he said, news spread rapidly.
“All I did was create a Facebook page, and it got shared 600-700 times,” he said. “I started getting phone calls. It was a little over my head at first.”
Bikers from Garden City, Dodge City, Scott City and Liberal were just some of those represented last week at Billy’s.
“They all came together,” Tempel said. “We all just wanted to help the family. Southwest Kansas is a really tight-knit community, unlike any community we have. We are really blessed to have each other in these communities. When something happens in our community, we all want to come together and show that we’re all family. We’re always going to be there for them no matter what happens.”