KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Rhett Hall loved the Kansas City Chiefs, even when they had a losing record. The Mound City, Mo., eight grader refuses to give up on anyone, including himself.
He’s been battling brain cancer since 2013. Doctors originally predicted he would most likely not live past September. But in true Rhett fashion, he proved them wrong.
He even accepted an invitation for October to be the mascot at Flag Football Tournament. The organizer, Best Youth Sports of nearby St. Joseph, was selling ‘Rallying for Rhett’ T-shirts at the tournament and promised to give all the proceeds to Rhett.
“They said we will have the money to you on Monday or Tuesday of next week,” said mom Angie Hall.
That was nearly three months ago, which is a long time to wait when time is no longer on your side.
“They told us they were going to do something and they never did it at all,” said Rhett.
Every time Angie asked the owners where the check was, she was told they’d been busy and hadn’t had time to write one. In fact, the last message came as text on December 10. But a week later, after a family friend accused the owners of fraud, Angie got another text message promising that the check “was in the mail.”
That would have solved the problem, except no check ever arrived.
That’s why Angie called FOX 4 Problem Solvers wanting to make sure this never happens to another child.
“I would want to tell them that if you are going to make a promise to a child, especially a child with a life-threatening disease, you follow through with it,” Angie said.
According to the Missouri Secretary of State’s office, Best Youth Sports is based out of a home in St. Joseph where it’s two owners also live, Katie Barnes and RaChelle Gaylord. We paid them a visit and talked to Barnes on her front lawn.
When we told Barnes that Rhett never got the money from the fundraiser, she assured us the check had been with her secretary for the last three weeks because Rhett’s mom had never picked it up.
We wondered how that could be true, since she had sent Angie a text telling her she had mailed the check. Barnes said she had been confused, and yes, she had mailed the check and was shocked to learn they hadn’t received it.
Angie tells us she has tried to contact Barnes multiple times and can’t get her to return her calls.
So where is the check? Barnes said she had no idea. But instead of apologizing, she got mad.
“We were trying to do a good thing and its turned out to be more of a pain in the butt than anything,” Barnes said.
We suggested a simple way to solve the problem. She could write another check while we waited.
That is exactly what she did. We delivered the $264 check that evening to a very happy Rhett Hall.
But not so happy is Katie Barnes, who told us she will never hold another fundraiser again.
