File photo St. Clairsville police officer Greg Clark, on left and his daughter Becca Schwertfeger at Clark's welcome home parade in March.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — A fundraiser for St. Clairsville police officer Greg Clark, who recently experienced an unexpected medical emergency while on patrol, is set for Saturday.

The steak fry benefit will take place from 4-11 p.m. at the Rec Center amphitheater.

A pre-kickoff event will begin at noon and continue until 4 p.m., when the benefit officially begins. The pre-kickoff will include a car cruise near the amphitheater, which also is when the various silent auctions will begin.

The benefit will feature cornhole tournaments, live music, fireworks, poker tables, auctions, Kirke’s Ice Cream and Ruttenbucks, which will provide steaks, potatoes and salads to attendees who already purchased steak dinner tickets in advance.

Former Belmont County Sheriff Dave Lucas will provide fireworks through his family business, Ohio Fireworks.

Police Chief Matt Arbenz said the steak dinners are sold out, with 500 tickets already purchased in advance.

Despite the steak dinners being sold out, Arbenz said Domino’s Pizza will sell pizza by the slice, and the police department will grill hamburgers and hot dogs that will be donation-based.

“People are welcome to bring their own water, iced teas, soft drinks, or whatever they want, the only rule is no outside alcohol. We will have Muxie Distributing Co. sponsoring us, so we’ll be selling beer there,” Arbenz said. “Do not bring your own alcohol, that’s our only rule. You’re welcome to bring your own lawn chairs if you’re worried about having enough seating or having a comfortable seat, you can bring your own lawn chairs. You can haul in your own umbrellas if you think there might be a chance of rain, anything is good to go. Really our only rule is no outside alcohol.”

Arbenz said many people assume putting together a benefit takes a lot of work, which he said is true in some aspects, but not when it comes to community support.

“As far as getting support, that part was extremely easy, and I can’t say any part of this has been hard just because so many people are willing to help and chip in either with donations, time, labor or whatever,” Arbenz said. “There’s been a lot of gratitude for officer Clark and for everything that he’s done so that really shows the way that people wanted to come together and try to make it a special day for him.”

He added that community support for Clark has been overwhelming.

Clark said he wanted to thank residents, co-workers and his family for the support shown to him since his medical emergency.

In March, Clark was flown to Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown after suffering a stroke while on duty.

Clark said he has physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy nearly every day. He added that he must receive clearance from his doctor before driving and preparing to return to work. There currently is no timeline for when Clark will be able to drive or return to work.

“I want to thank all my coworkers at the city, chief Arbenz, Mayor [Kathryn] Thalman, and all of my coworkers. I’d like to thank God for giving me another chance in life and want to thank the Cumberland Trail Fire Department,” Clark said. “I just hope that everybody comes out on Saturday and has a good time.”