At 14 years old, Connor Stoeklen started feeling sick. Within a year, he was diagnosed with a rare cancer called gastrointestinal neuroectodermal tumor or GNET, an aggressive form of sarcoma that put his life at risk and left his family fearful of what would come next. However, after two years of being cancer-free, Connor celebrated by taking to the skies with aerobatic pilot Jody Graffunder in his Yak 52 Soviet primary trainer aircraft as part of Wheels & Wings in Osceola.
“In seventh grade, he just kept getting sick,” said Connor’s mother, Bridget. “He would get this pain in his neck. There were times when we couldn’t wake him up for school. He would sleep for hours and only get up to use the bathroom. So, we started bringing him to the doctor. It was during Covid, so they were always testing for that at first, and it wasn’t that. Then they started testing for other things and it wasn’t anything. Finally, one day he passed out in physical education class. That’s when I said, ‘Something’s wrong. He needs to be seen.’”
After a biopsy of one of Connor’s lymph nodes in his neck, the Stoeklens received the news they never wanted to hear. But Connor and his family never gave up. His parents continued to advocate for him, and he continued to fight his cancer. After his six-month checkup in May of this year, Connor is officially two years cancer-free.
“That kid can pick any five-foot patch of grass in the yard and find all the four-leaf clovers in it,” said Connor’s father, James, on his luck in beating the disease. During his fight, the Make-A-Wish Foundation reached out to Connor’s family. Being a diehard fisherman, Connor wanted a fishing boat for his wish - a wish that came true. But Make-A-Wish didn’t stop there. They contacted his parents again and asked if he would be interested in flying at the Simenstad Municipal Airport in Osceola with pilot “Smokey” Graffunder, to which they happily agreed.
“I’ve always dreamt of flying,” said Graffunder. “I wanted to be a fighter pilot when I was a kid, but I didn’t have the eyesight. When I was training to get my [Private Pilot License], I got LASIK surgery. Had that been available, it might have been an option for me. But year after year since then I’ve just been reaching for more and more challenges.”
Graffunder has been flying with his license for the last 12 years. He bought his first Yak 52 airplane from another air show pilot who was retiring and taught him how to fly it. Since then, he’s fallen into the Warbird Community of pilots who fly similar aircraft to him, and he continues to share his passion for flying with others.
“I was telling Connor that one of my favorite things about all of this is being able to share it with other people," said Graffunder. “I feel like if you can spend 10 minutes with a child and expose them to something they’ve never seen before, you could change their life."
After about a half-hour plane ride reaching high speeds and quickly flying over Amery, Graffunder and Connor returned to the Simenstad Airport in Osceola and touched down. “It was fun,” Connor said after a successful landing. “It was like a rollercoaster but at like 100 miles per hour.”
“It’s great to meet folks like this,” said Wheels & Wings President Shane Twohy. “And then, of course, it spreads out to things like this with Connor and his family. Like Jody said, it really is inspiring for us pilots to see things like this happen and to have the kids come up and learn. It’s just a really neat thing. It’s awesome to possess the ability to share the gift of flying.”