Roger Bailey said when she told him what the kiddie pool was for, he couldn’t believe it.
He had gone to her family’s home — a trailer half crushed by a fallen tree — to see how he and other disaster relief volunteers could help.
“The couple had three young children, and the father had done what he could to demolish the half that got crushed, and he covered the end with a tarp,” Bailey said. “So they were living in half a single-wide trailer — a living room, dining, master bedroom and master bath.”
And as he looked around their home, he saw a lot of damage, but the question that rose to the top was this — why was it so hot?
“The mother told me that their air conditioner was out,” Bailey said. “It was 100 degrees in that trailer, and I said, ‘How do you live? How do you go to bed at night?’ And she said, ‘Late at night, I fill up that kiddie pool, and the kids can cool off in it.’”
‘A beautiful sight’
With tears in his eyes, Bailey told her that he and other volunteers would be able to get them a new air conditioner. The next day, he bought it with disaster relief funds and sent some electricians to hook it up.
“I talked to her the day after that, and she said it was a beautiful sight looking over and seeing her babies covered up in blankets,” he said.
Her family was one of several that Bailey — a member of First Baptist Church Athens — was able to help recover from Hurricane Helene, which devastated North Carolina in September 2024. Bailey responded to the call for help in April and worked alongside North Carolina Baptists on Mission Disaster Response Ministry until late August.
He said when he first left for North Carolina, he didn’t expect to be gone that long, but he just couldn’t stop.
“I got stage 4 cancer back in 2015,” Bailey said. “It was four years of chemotherapy and a lot of prayer and a lot of cards from beautiful folks. I really decided then that I was going to do more if I lived.”
‘What a rewarding experience it is’
So he started helping more — and he said that, honestly, he felt like that was a selfish decision too.
“It is unbelievable what a rewarding experience it is to help folks,” Bailey said.
He said God blessed him with a career in construction that has given him a special skillset he can use in disaster relief and rebuilding work.
“I just really, really want to be His hands and feet as much as I can,” Bailey said.
He said more volunteers are needed to fill a variety of roles from construction to landscaping to helping people clean and organize their homes.
“The tools are there, they just need people to come and use them,” Bailey said. “You will not believe how rewarding it is to hear their heart, hear their testimonies. It’s a great way to spend a vacation.”
Addie Bruening, assistant construction coordinator for one of the work sites in North Carolina, said Bailey “really made a difference to all of us and he is missed.”
“Roger worked tirelessly using his incredible knowledge, talent, skills and his love for the Lord to bless all those he served with as he worked on their homes,” Bruening said.
Bailey said he plans to return next summer.
“If God gives me the health I enjoy today, I plan on being back,” he said. “There’s so much need out there right now.”
And by then, it’s possible the family now living in half a trailer will have a new home, thanks to North Carolina disaster relief. Construction should start on the house within the next couple of weeks.
“When they told the mother that they were building her a new house, she just melted,” Bailey said.
For more information about getting involved in disaster relief, visit sbdr.org.
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