RIVER FALLS — With a smile that lights up the room and a laugh that everyone who knows him can recognize, River Falls High School alum Mustafa Adam is loved by seemingly everyone in the community. That’s why a group of his friends set up the StafaStrong 5K to support him in his journey to tackle cancer once again.

Stafa, as his friends call him, has been dealing with Rhabdomyosarcoma, a type of soft tissue cancer, since he was diagnosed in middle school. The cancer has come and gone from year to year. Stafa had surgery to remove a tumor in December, and by the spring, it returned and he needed another, more intense surgery. At age 29, he has gone through six cancer-related surgeries.

“We can’t do any of the medical stuff. There’s nothing we can do to ease his pain that way,” Stafa’s friend Sebastian Larson said. “We just kind of put our heads together and thought what can we do and came up with the fundraiser.”

They thought up the StafaStrong 5K, an Oct. 4 event at Glen Park. Check-in time is 9 a.m., with the race expected to begin at 10 a.m. They are accepting walk-up registration during the check-in period. People can also donate to @Stafa-Strong-5K on Venmo. While the online shirt purchasing window has passed, they will be selling overflow shirts on a first come, first serve basis at the event.

After the 5K, an afterparty will be held at Garage Bikes + Brews. There will be drinks, food trucks and a silent auction. Larson wants everyone to feel welcomed at the event and to show up to support Stafa.

“Just show up,” Larson said. “We’ve raised way more money than we thought we were going to already. It’s about that obviously to help him and his family, and that’s what we’re trying to do. On the flip side of that, we just want people to see Mustafa and be there for him. I just want him to feel how loved he is.”

Larson and Adam have been friends since middle school, going on to play football together in high school. Their friends Jackson and Casey helped come up with the idea, and more and more people have joined the effort to help along the way. With Stafa unable to work, they wanted a way to support Stafa, his wife Kaylee and children Zayn and Mila. Larson said Stafa lost his father to cancer in middle school.

While it can be frustrating for medical issues to keep popping up over the years, Stafa’s friends and family wanted to help him keep that memorable smile on his face.

“You really couldn’t meet anybody who would say anything bad about him. He was very popular,” Larson said. “He’s very optimistic, he’s outgoing and he’s just kind. He’s got a big smile on his face all the time. He’s got a really unique laugh that everyone would recognize.”

In a world of divide, Stafa is someone who is easy to back. His big heart has been felt by many, and now it is time to return the favor.

“This has taken off more than we thought it would,” Larson said. “That was kind of the idea, was to get a lot of people in one place together. I think it’s good for Mustafa, it’s good for the community to have something like that.”