Community, church rallies for Hall family

Members of The Vine Fellowship have joined in the fight as one of their flock in the Hall family is in an ongoing battle against cancer. To assist in that undertaking, both are reaching out to the community for support.

Jared Hall, only 25, began his battle in December 2023, when he was diagnosed with melanoma following the removal of a brain tumor.

After beginning treatment at UNC-Chapel Hill, it was discovered that Hall’s disease had spread. His doctors then referred him to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, to be under the care of one of the nation’s best melanoma oncologists. After two rounds of radiation, he now faces nine more weeks of intense treatment of ipi/nivo immunotherapy, additional maintenance drugs and frequent trips to Texas over the next two or more years.

“Once the disease was found to be more progressive and aggressive than what we first thought, they advised us to go to MD Anderson,” Hall’s mom, Jodi said. “Those trips are going to be continuous for the next couple of years, off and on, so that’s going to get quite expensive. The doctor leading the team said, hopefully, if all things are going well, we’ll be able to do a lot of the treatment at Chapel Hill so we can stay at home. So he’s very happy about that.”

With that steep hill left to climb, the family faces financial burdens for the foreseeable future. That’s where The Vine Fellowship — and they hope, the community — can step in. To help raise money to aid in the Hall’s expenses the church has begun a GoFundMe campaign for Hall and there is an even bigger local fundraising event around the corner.

The target goal for the fundraiser is $25,000 and since it began back on April 10, the generosity received has come in droves. As of earlier this week, the GoFundMe had gained 43 donations raising $5,245.

“We have been just overwhelmed with the amount of support that people have reached out and offered to help on behalf of Jared,” Hall said. “We are overcome with all the support already and we’re just amazed by the love that this community, our church family and friends have shown us. The church family, especially, they really jumped in when they found out we were going to Texas for treatment.”

The GoFundMe is being organized by The Vine Fellowship’s Rev. Matt Barefoot. He said organizing the fundraising for Hall was the natural thing to do to help out the family.

“Our church is a big family so we see this as just taking care of our family, which is what we think we should be doing,” Barefoot said. “In a way, I think this is what we’re supposed to be doing because they’re part of our family, and so, we just want to love them, like the Lord loves us. Of course, no one wants to be in a situation where you have to do this. But when people are, I think we should be stepping up to help out in any way we can. We care for our family greatly and we just want to do whatever we can to ease the financial burden.

Barefoot said the family has many other things to worry about with Jared’s treatment and their travel back and forth. The hope is to take some of the other stresses off of them, he said.

“With the help of the community — because the community is huge — we can maybe alleviate some of the financial burdens,” said Barefoot. “That’ll, hopefully, allow them to concentrate on some other areas that are more important where they need to have their attention right now.”

While the GoFundMe is one avenue The Vine Fellowship is using to help raise funds, Barefoot noted that it’s not their main fundraiser for Hall.

“The big thing that we’re doing isn’t the GoFundMe — it’s the smaller of the two major events that we’re doing,” he said. “The GoFundMe, of course, is rolling along and kind of maintains itself, but our big one is a lunch and dinner benefit on May the 14th.”

That falls on a Tuesday, where they’ll be selling BBQ plates to raise more money, with all the proceeds going directly to the family. The plates will be available from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 4:30-6 p.m. Tickets are $10 per plate. The event will be held at the church, located at 1719 Southeast Blvd., Clinton.

“Thanks to donations from local companies, and from individuals, all the stuff to make this happen is being paid for so the family is getting 100% of the profit,” Barefoot said. “I really think we’ll raise much more money and attention through this than we will GoFundMe.

“I know GoFundMe is far reaching so there’ll be a lot of people who don’t live in our area and can’t get a plate that day, so they’ll show support in that way. A lot of local people have also helped through the GoFundMe as well, but our biggest event is the benefit on May 14. That’s going to be a big event day as far as us raising money for them. We’re looking forward to it as well — matter of fact, most of our attention right now is going into that event.”

The Vine Fellowship will be partnering with the members of Grateful Shed for the event. Barefoot said the Shed Heads will be handling all of the cooking.

“Working with them has been tremendous,” he said. “Because they’re gonna do all the cooking for us, we‘re set to package the plates, plus we have a ton of people from the community that are going to put plates together and help deliver them all over the county.”

It will definitely be for a worthy cause, as Hall’s family and extended church family attested.

Jodi Hall described her son as loyal and hard-working, a man of faith. He was a turkey farm manager for Prestage Farms and he took pride in in making sure the farm was at its best before his health setbacks.

“He is very loyal to his friend group, loves their company and to support them in anyway that he can,” she said. “He enjoys doing cookouts, hunting and fishing with all his buddies and he doesn’t mind sharing his faith with those that need support. He’s been giving testimony and giving witness to Jesus as a Savior through this. Even before he was sick, he shared his love for the Lord and supported others through that. Jared, he’s got a lot of faith in the Lord, and that God’s gonna bring him through this and we’re going to have a good testimony on the other side of this.”

For those wishing to donate or find more information on the GoFundMe, visit, www.gofundme.com at “Jared Hall Medical Benefit.” For more information on the upcoming benefit meal, Barefoot can be contacted at 910-379-6374.