The worst of times can bring out the best in people.
That has never been more evident than in the days following a series of tornadoes that ripped through western Kentucky on Dec. 10, destroying hopes, lives and entire communities on a 200-plus-mile path of destruction that is blamed for more than 70 deaths and billions in damage.
Within days of the tornado touching down, Samson Bailey, owner of Golf Preservations, and his wife, DeAnna, got busy at their company's eastern Kentucky headquarters in Middlesboro, collecting donations for folks in places like Mayfield and Bowling Green more than 350 miles away. They parked a company trailer at Middlesboro High School, where DeAnna teaches children with special needs. Pretty soon, that trailer was filled to the doors with everything from bottled water, soap, cleaning products and diapers to canned goods and clothing.
"It was more than 10,000 pounds," Bailey said. "We weighed it on the (weigh station) scales on the way over, and we were almost over the limit."
Eastern Kentucky is hardly an affluent place, but wealth in these parts often is measured more by how much one gives rather than how much one has. Many of the donations Bailey hauled six hours across the state literally came off the backs of their donors. Others gave what little cash they could afford. In all, Golf Preservations collected more than $1,000 in cash donations.
"People were donating clothes out of their closets. For some people, that is easier than giving money," Bailey said. "We had people come up on bicycles and give us $5 then go on about their day. It was probably the only $5 they had in their pockets. One girl had a spare tire on her car, and she brought supplies five times in two days. That gives you an idea of how much people here wanted to help."
In the months preceding the tornadoes in western Kentucky, Bailey had spent several months in the Northeast working on more than a half-dozen golf course drainage projects before returning home on Dec. 10. He awoke the following morning to several text messages from friends and clients from out of state asking if he was OK. "I had just come home, and didn't even know what they were talking about until I looked it up on my phone," Bailey said.
When he saw the devastation, he knew his family had to help. DeAnna put a notice on Facebook on Dec. 11 telling people their trailer was at the high school, and the donations soon started coming in.
"We knew with it being so close to Christmas that nothing was going to happen quickly for these people," he said.
Bailey assigned two employees to help manage the collection process, and DeAnna's grandfather, Don Carrol, also volunteered, helping pack the trailer and unload it again after the six-hour drive across the state.
After making the drive, Bailey found some areas inaccessible and other areas where volunteers were overwhelmed. School gymnasiums and churches had been set up with folding tables flush with donated items.
"It was like a department store," Bailey said. "Everything was on tables and people just went up and down the aisles taking whatever they needed."
Bailey and his team made three stops, finally settling on a church in Sharpe, Kentucky, to unload their haul.
There two volunteers put out a call for help, and soon there were another 10 people to unload the trailer. Other Good Samaritans dropping off donations stepped in to help unload, too.
"It was packed tight," Bailey said. "We had no room to spare. When the doors opened stuff started falling out. We brought more in that delivery than that church had received in several days. There were people helping unload from age 4 to age 85. It was neat that so many people were willing to help."
Much of Golf Preservations' heavy equipment is still out on job sites where it is being used on drainage projects. Bailey said he plans to return to western Kentucky for some heavy lifting when that equipment returns home over the winter.
The true heroes, he said, are folks like those in Middlesboro who had little or nothing to give, but still managed to help others in their time of need.
"There are still a lot of good people out there," he said. "A lot of people wanted to give, but didn't know how to get it out there."