TAR HEEL – Eddie Knight knows smalltown life.
And how those who call such communities home always tend to rally together for a good cause.
He speaks with a kind of reverence of the residents of smaller communities such as Tar Heel and their occasional needs of assistance. And the surrounding neighbors who come together in support of them.
“We still have a core of people in Tar Heel,” Knight said. “It’s a small community.”
The 72-year-old Knight has lived in Tar Heel since the 1970s.
There – in that crossroads community where the four lanes of N.C. 87 snake through town and the massive Smithfield Foods plant operates as the world’s largest pork processor just down the road – they take care of their own.
In this case, it’s a barbecue plate fundraiser being held for Tar Heel’s Amy Grimes Melvin, who makes her living at the nearby Smithfield plant.
Melvin is in need of a lung transplant.
“I’m overwhelmed. I’m amazed. I can’t believe it at all. It’s overwhelming,” she said of the upcoming fundraiser. “I never thought this would be happening. It’s a lot to take in. They’re really going all out.”
The fundraiser is set for the Tar Heel Fire Department, 269 Tar Heel Ferry Road, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on November 18.
Eat in or take out.
“People rally around anytime there’s an individual who needs help in a community like this,” Knight said. “We’re expecting a good turnout. Good barbecue. We’ve already had people give donations to the cause.
“You go through life, and you’re going to have peaks and valleys. And it sure is nice when you have a valley and community friends help you,” he said Monday. “You may need a little help.”
Knight called Melvin a friend.
Melvin, who is 57, is a lifelong resident of Tar Heel. She’s known around town.
Some of her friends know her as “Little Bit.”
There’s even a road in the area — Grimes Road — that is named for her family. Her grandparents were well known in the southeastern farming community.
“My Grandma, my Grandad and my Daddy were from there right in Tar Heel. My Daddy was born there, in the homeplace in Tar Heel,” she said.
Melvin is on the transplant list to have the surgery done in the near future at Duke University Hospital.
“I’m already going to Duke for testing. They said to start fundraising so I’ll be prepared when I do have to go,” Melvin said. “I’m not quite there yet.”
Born with Kartagener syndrome, a rare inherited birth defect, Melvin has had problems breathing for much of her life. The last few years, the breathing issue with her lungs has grown worse, and as she has gotten older, it has become more difficult.
“When she has the transplant,” he said, “she has to move and live within 30 minutes of the Duke (University) Hospital for rehabilitation reasons and to make sure everything goes well for six months and maybe a year.
“We’re trying to raise funds for her living expenses,” Knight said. “She’ll be out of work after the lung transplant. So, we have a fundraiser for her.”
As her pending transplant draw nearer, Melvin said, “Actually, I’m scared to death. I would love to be able to breath and do some things I want to do. I’m very nervous. I’ve had other surgeries, but this one’s major. It kind of worries me.”
Knight is hoping that this money-making effort will raise about $15,000.
Besides the $8 barbecue plates, served with sides of baked beans and slaw, organizers are selling Boston butts for $40 each, holding a silent auction and raffling off a golf cart.
Knight said he first got wind of Melvin’s situation from her daughter, Kaylee, who attends the same Tar Heel church as Knight — Tar Heel Baptist Church.
“She was telling us about her mother’s ordeal,” Knight said. “We’re trying to get this done and offer support.”
Sponsors are the Tar Heel area churches, Reedy Meadow Hunt Club and Bladen We Care.
Timmy “Ziggy” Carroll, who has competed in several statewide barbecue cookoffs, and Nicholas Wilkins are among the pig cookers. The crew will be preparing more than 100 Boston butts the night before the Saturday fundraiser, Knight said.
Those will be sold, too.
“He cooks a lot of barbecue around Thanksgiving and Christmas,” he noted of “Ziggy.”
“Come out and support Amy,” reads a poster promoting the weekend event.
And like other community fundraisers that have come before and those that will follow this particular one for Amy Grimes Melvin, the townspeople will undoubtedly respond by supporting the good Samaritan cause.
“That’s not only in this case,” Knight said. “That’s the way it has been with other individuals. We’ve had many of these, really. And I’m sure it will continue.”
