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Ribeyes to host benefit for Weeks
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Eddie Weeks, a volunteer fireman in Mount Olive, saved the day for Ribeyes Steakhouse back in November, when their exhaust system failed. Now Ribeyes owner Alan Hawkins, who has become a friend, wants to do the same for Weeks, who is battling cancer.
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By William Holloman
Staff Writer
They became friends in the usual, sometimes lucky way that all small town folks become friends. They help one another.
It is better known as the old-fashioned Southern way, and as a result of it all, Ribeyes Steakhouse owner Alan Hawkins will gladly sit down and tell you all about an event he has coming up in several weeks.
On a Saturday afternoon last November, Hawkins went to open his restaurant at 3:30 in the afternoon.
Unfortunately, the exhaust system for the restaurant’s cooking area was not working. Without it functioning properly, the restaurant couldn’t operate.
That is when Hawkins met and found a friend right here in Mount Olive.
He was a volunteer fireman and respected by all who knew him.
It was Eddie Weeks, now 56, who told Hawkins he would look at the system and see if anything could be done.
Weeks, the son of Town of Mount Olive Special Projects Director Maylon Weeks, was maintenance supervisor for the Uchiyama America Company in Goldsboro at the time.
Hawkins thought it would cost him about $2,000 to get repairs in order to reopen the popular Center Street steakhouse for business.
Weeks checked it out, immediately saw the problem, and fixed it. The cost was not $2,000, but $295.
He drove over to Hawkins’ house to tell him the situation, and he and Hawkins have been friends since.
Now it is payback time, according to Hawkins.
Weeks, the father of two grown daughters, is battling cancer.
Some months ago, he began having problems with dizziness and was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He underwent surgery.
It has returned, according to his father, and now he is going through treatment again.
Naturally, he is no longer working, but his friend, Hawkins, wants to do something for the man who once helped him so much.
“I can’t go to the doctor for him, but I can do something,” said the local restaurant owner.
He is asking the entire community to help him, and will kick it off on April 7.
Hawkins said he will contribute 25 percent of the day’s receipts to help Weeks with mounting expenses for the six weeks of both radiation and chemotherapy he is currently undergoing.
“I just hope it will help ease some of the worry for him,” Hawkins said.
He is asking the entire community to turn out and help a man who has spent his life helping others.
Again, the event will be held on April 7 at Ribeyes Steakhouse in historic downtown Mount Olive.
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