LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The nonprofit Roll Call Foundation's mission is to help one person every day. When its founder became aware of a child with cancer whose family was in need of help with fixing their backyard deck, volunteers answered the call.
Don Barbiea is a retired veteran who founded the Roll Call Foundation with his two best friends over three years ago.
“The whole purpose was to, you know, it’s simple: three disabled veterans, two horses and one mission — that’s to help one person every day,” Barbiea said.
That mission is in honor of Jesse Schott. Barbiea was Jesse’s Scoutmaster and the pair met when Jesse was nine years old.
Jesse had been diagnosed with cancer when he was only three, but after undergoing a stem cell transplant, he was cancer free.
“Eventually, when he was 17, the cancer came back,” said Kyle Schott, Jesse’s grandfather. “That’s what got him.”
Kyle and his wife raised Jesse.
“He worked at McDonald’s for a while and he would see older people come in and they were afraid they didn’t have any money and he would buy them something to eat,” Kyle said.
Jesse’s desire to help people led to him making a special request to Barbiea about a month before he passed away.
“Me and him were out on a paddle boat after PET scans one day… we were going down the river and he said, ‘I want you to promise me something,’ and I said, ‘What’s that buddy?’ and he goes, ‘I want you to help one person every day,’” Barbiea recalled.
And that’s what he and Kyle have set out to do. When the two of them heard about a five-year-old boy named Jaxson Gass who has the same cancer that Jesse had — Medulloblastoma — and whose family needed help, Barbiea rounded up volunteers to help with building them a new deck.
“The deck has just fallen apart, and I tried to get a loan to repair it myself and I couldn’t,” said Cindy Redmon, Jaxson’s grandmother. “Right now, I’m the sole person making payments for everything.”
Jaxson is currently in the hospital but is expected to be home on Friday. Now he’ll get to spend time outside because of the Roll Call Foundation’s special act of service.
“For this to happen is such a blessing,” Redmon said.
Kyle was more than willing to help and did so with his beloved grandson in mind.
“He liked to help people and so this is why I am doing this because it’s in Jesse’s name and, you know, he’s my hero,” Kyle said.
Though gone too soon, Jesse’s legacy lives on through the Roll Call Foundation, which has grown to help far more than one person a day.
The nonprofit doesn’t charge people for their services, but Barbiea is using his own VA disability checks to help others. For more information about the Roll Call Foundation and how you can donate, visit their website.