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Salvation Army coordinator inspires miracles

By McLean Dobbins
Citizen Journalist

Three years ago, when George Bell Jr. took over as coordinator for disaster relief for the Salvation Army in Raleigh, the team had five people.

George Bell

What started as a five-member team has now grown into a group that comprises 10 members, eight men and two women.

That’s because people seem to want to follow Bell.

“He’s an encourager,” said Maj. Al Smith, retired officer and pastor of the Salvation Army. “People look up to him.”

On call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the team responds to calls in North Carolina and South Carolina. Occasionally, the team responds to calls outside the Carolinas, providing support during hurricanes in Florida, for example.

Although the team responds mainly to hurricane relief efforts, they try to help out whenever and wherever they think they might be needed.

“The worst thing they can do is send us away,” Bell said.

Responding to local tragedy

When the ConAgra plant exploded June 9, Bell got a call. By 1 p.m., six members of his disaster relief team had arrived at the plant from the Salvation Army in downtown Raleigh.

They were there until 5 a.m. the next day, with Bell checking in on team members throughout the day and night, making sure that they knew he was at the site and that they had enough water, ice and gas to power a generator they were using.

Using his cell phone and his computer to communicate with supervisors and team members, Bell coordinates everything from his home, where he can more easily get around in his wheelchair.

Born with spina bifida — a birth defect that affects the spinal cord — Bell is paralyzed from the waist down.

Doctors said Bell was supposed to live only a few days. He will be 39 in August.

“He wasn’t supposed to be able to talk or go to school,” said his mother, Joe Ann Bell. “He’s never complained about it. He’s never asked, ‘Why me?’”

Bell graduated from Garner Senior High School in 1989.

“Anybody that doesn’t believe in miracles, here’s one,” he said.

‘One of the finest men’

As part of his job, Bell is in charge of maintenance for the disaster relief unit, which is essentially a kitchen on wheels, complete with stove, grill and refrigerator. A trailer is used to carry cups, plates and other supplies.

Bell makes sure it is stocked up on critical emergency supplies such as water, coffee, canned food and other nonperishable items.

He is also president of the Men’s Club at the Salvation Army and received its Man of the Year award.

“I’ve been in ministry 43 years, and he is one of the finest men I’ve ever met,” said Smith, who met Bell eight years ago.

“He never really talked about his disability but what he could do,” Smith said. “And that impressed me.”

On Sunday mornings, you can find Bell at the Salvation Army church on Person Street in downtown Raleigh, where he helps take up the Sunday offering.

“There’s no doubt I’m a better man since I’ve known George,” Smith said. “If we had a lot more people like George in this world — man, there’s no telling what we could do.”

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