The hometown of Ryan Straschnitzki, the Humboldt Broncos player who was paralyzed when the team’s bus crashed in early April, is hosting a performance to raise money for his family.

The 19-year-old was severely injured in the incident on April 6, and doctors say that he is now paralyzed from the chest down.

He’s been at the Shriner’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia for the past two weeks, receiving specialized treatment for his spinal cord injury.

The institution is renowned for its work with patients suffering from the same injuries.

Meanwhile, Ryan’s family back in Airdrie is doing all they can to prepare for his eventual return home, including renovating the bottom level of their house to accommodate for his wheelchair.

Tom Straschnitzki says his son has already been through a litany of training programs to help him get better.

The programs include basics of day-to-day care, medication his son is taking and warning signs if something goes wrong.

"Because he can't feel anything, if there's a wrinkle, he'll turn all red and his blood pressure will drop. We've got to figure out the signs and try and fix the problem," said Straschnitzki in an interview at his home with The Canadian Press.

"It's scary. Hopefully we'll know what to do and they've trained us pretty good."

In the meantime, supporters of the family are holding a benefit concert in the community to raise money to help them with his medical bills and other costs.

Cody Thompson, Ryan’s former trainer and event organizer, says that it’s important to have an event like this to provide aid to the Straschnitzki family.

“The procedures that are going to be available to him are not going to be inexpensive and they are going to have be paid for by somebody and, obviously, we want that to be us,” he says. “He has a real goal of playing sledge hockey and getting to the Olympics.”

Thompson says that the best thing for them to do would be to help them with all the bills so that Ryan can focus his strength on getting better.

“We don’t want him to worry about all those bills. We want him to worry about how he is going to manoeuvre that sled and get onto Team Alberta and ultimately on to Team Canada.”

He adds that the community has really stepped up and rallied behind the Straschnitzkis in the wake of the tragic event.

“It’s been really good to see. It’s been really overwhelming, the amount of people that are willing to step up and help out. The fact that we can get such an event like this off the ground in such a short period of time is just a testament to who we are in Airdrie.”

He says the event will have performances from five bands, including Monster Truck and Jay Smith, the musician who wrote Sticks Out by the Door, the Humboldt Broncos’ song. There will still be tickets available at the door for people who still want to attend.

As for how Ryan is doing, Thompson says he is doing well.

“I talked to him yesterday. He’s sore from his workouts and he’s starting to lift weights against and trying to build as much strength back as he can. He’s in good spirits and he’s getting better.”

Ryan hopes to be back home in mid-July.

The concert, at Genesis Place in Airdrie, runs from 6:00 p.m. until 11:00 p.m.

(With files from Brenna Rose and the Canadian Press)