Bandito Barney’s raising money for McHenry boy

An East Dundee pub is holding a benefit this weekend to support Logan Wilson, a 3-year-old battling seven benign brain tumors.

The boy’s supporters, calling themselves Logan’s Warriors, will converge on Bandito Barney’s Beach Club and Bordello from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday to raise money for expenses related to Logan’s treatments in Chicago. Logan’s family lived in Carpentersville and East Dundee before relocating to McHenry in January.

Logan was diagnosed with a single benign brain tumor on his optical nerve when he was just a year old, and his doctors told his parents, Amber and Scott Wilson, to wait until he was a bit older to begin chemotherapy. Logan has undergone MRIs the last two years to monitor the tumor’s growth and in June, doctors discovered six more tumors in other parts of his brain. He started his chemotherapy treatments soon after and they are expected to last 15 months.

“He’s pretty normal right now,” Dawn Lambert said of her only grandchild, who has experienced hair loss, stomach pain and gastrointestinal distress. “We’re praying that there’s not going to be severe side effects.”

Bandito Barneys has been good to Logan’s family.

His grandmother, a colon cancer survivor, lives next door to the East Dundee establishment and spent 13 years tending bar there. Logan’s mother, Amber Wilson, waited tables there for a year. The bar, at 10 N. River St., was owned by Thom McNamee, a philanthropist and developer who died of a brain tumor in 2009.

That connection is not lost on Logan’s mother.

“It just made us feel wonderful that this place is doing this for us,” Wilson said. “It means the world to us. It’s like a second home for us.”

The benefit will include a silent auction, a dunk tank, prizes, a 50/50 drawing, arts and crafts, face painting and live music. T-shirts will be sold in advance and at the benefit for $20 each.

Wristbands can be bought in advance at the bar — they cost $15 for adults 21 and older, $10 for people between 13 and 20 years old and people younger than 13 get in free. The wristband covers admission, food, soda and draft beer. Admission is $20 at the door.

People unable to attend the fundraiser but who would want to help Logan can make checks payable to the Andrea Lynn Cancer Foundation and mail to 188 Farington Road, Crystal Lake, 60014. Include “Logan Wilson” in the memo area.