She asked Jamey to call his buddies to find out about the status of the hiking trails, and when they found out that several were closed, she asked them if they wanted to help her find a group to work with and help storm victims. The men readily agreed. Rebecca found a group to help. They told her to have the men bring crowbars, shovels, garden rakes, gloves, and masks because they didn’t know what they might be facing. They also told them not to show up in sandals or sneakers. “We met them at a coffee shop, and they were helping to guide people to where they needed to go,” Rebecca recalled. They tore out walls and insulation. They placed fans to help move air so that mold wouldn’t form. “It was a yucky, yucky, situation, really yucky,” she said. “I had never seen anything like that in my life.” The next day, they were sent on what Rebecca described as a wild goose chase. Their mission; find an elderly man in a particular neighborhood. They didn’t have the right address, so she called the volunteer group to report that they couldn’t find him. The volunteer group told them to just go. The devastation was too much to pinpoint just one area. The Bagwells and their friends began to stop and help anyone they found. Some houses needed insulation hauled out. Others needed a vapor barrier installed. Some needed debris removed. Still, they couldn’t find the elderly man. As the men continued to work, Rebecca took her dog, Petey, into some of the neighborhoods to provide emotional support to storm victims. She put boots on Petey and off they went. “And finally, toward the end of the day, I walk all the way down a road with the dog and tiptoe through where I see nails laying down,” she said. “I peek around the door, and the whole house is gutted, down to the studs and there’s people standing on what little is left of a floor that they had not taken up. And there’s an elderly man.” She said hello and then said, “You must be the elderly man that we were supposed to help this morning.” He looked around and said to her, “Well, I don’t know who the elderly man is that you’re talking about. I’m 77.” Rebecca recalled that everyone started laughing. “His wife looked at him and she goes, ‘You’re the elderly man.’” The man, who was surrounded by the remains of his gutted house, then looked at Rebecca and joked that he would make her a really good deal on his house. Even with the joking and laughter from that moment, the devastation tugged at Rebecca. She told Jamey after they got home from their trip that she couldn’t let it go. She had to do something to help. Rebecca’s career in music had connected her with people across the country. As it turned out, she found out one of her music connections had a family member in Spruce Pine, North Carolina. The friend connected Rebecca to her family member, who then helped her connect with other 66 SEPTEMBER 2025
