George Real Estate Group Radio Broadcast

Neighbors First: How Crosses For Hope Rose After The Storm

• George Real Estate Group

Share episode

What does it look like to turn heartbreak into a habit of help? We sit down with Barbara and Joey Brown, the couple behind Crosses for Hope, whose storm-side response grew from chainsaws and cedar into months of heavy equipment, rebuilt driveways, and hope restored in Bat Cave, North Carolina. Their story starts with a simple pattern they heard at every door—“I’m fine, can you check on my neighbor?”—and becomes a blueprint for resilience powered by community.

We trace the origins of their cedar crosses, crafted not as public religious symbols but as private beacons that say tomorrow can be better. As seasons changed and resin wouldn’t set, the mission shifted to what the mountains needed most: fuel, a dually, a trailer, and boots on the ground to move excavators, set culverts, and stabilize homes. The Browns even traded a treasured ’79 custom Corvette to keep the work moving. Along the way, they focused on veterans, seniors, and families who lost everything, reminding us that real recovery isn’t a headline—it’s a thousand small wins.

We also share a clear-eyed snapshot of the local real estate market—more homes sold year to date, softening prices, and easing rates—and frame it with a simple truth: life happens, therefore real estate happens. Whether you’re downsizing, relocating to be near family, or starting a new chapter after the storm, your next move should protect your wealth, preserve your legacy, and keep your freedom intact. This conversation blends heart and logistics, from neighborhood grit to practical steps for navigating change with purpose.

If this story moved you, share it with someone who needs a lift today. Subscribe for more hometown hero spotlights, leave a review to help others find the show, and reach out if you’re ready to chart your next chapter with clarity and care.

SPEAKER_01:

The George Real Estate Group Radio broadcast is celebrating 10 years on WHKP. The George Real Estate Group is celebrating 10 years on the radio live every Thursday morning at 1005 on WHKP 107.7 FM and AM 1450, and streaming online at WHKP.com. Each Friday morning at 8.45, the George Real Estate Group presents the Hometown Hero Award to someone in our community who goes above and beyond to make our hometown a better place to live. Here's this week's Hometown Hero Show. It's 8.45 and uh time now for our George Real Estate Group Hometown Hero Series on Friday morning, the highlight of the week for uh a lot of us around here, including Noah George. And it's so good to have you back, Noah. How are you?

SPEAKER_00:

I'm great. So much to be thankful for, and it's a it's a privilege and honor to sponsor the Hometown Heroes series uh every Friday morning. It's the highlight of my week.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, uh, you had a good fill in yesterday or last week, rather. Uh Taylor was here and she did a fantastic job. She can talk some real estate.

SPEAKER_00:

She certainly can. I told her she did she did better. I mean, for someone been thrown into the lion's den, I mean, she did awesome.

SPEAKER_01:

I didn't do that well the first time I was ever on the air, I promise you.

SPEAKER_00:

That's for sure. But just grateful. Again, we're here every Friday morning. We're also here every Thursday, right after the 10 o'clock news, sharing positive news about the local real estate marketing community. And uh, you know, the I I want to say we have an open house this Sunday at 1600 Orchard Park in Flat Rock. It's an amazing uh farmhouse. Uh it's awesome.

SPEAKER_01:

I looked at that and I used to live uh um around the corner down there.

SPEAKER_00:

It's an awesome property. Right. Um and that's gonna be open this Sunday from one to three. And of course, uh, and we also have uh 73 Wisdom Cove in Hendersonville open this uh Sunday from two to four. You can see all this on our social media and Facebook, and uh you know, just want to make sure to get a plug-in for that. But the real estate market is still moving. I mean, like we've actually had more homes sell you know year to date this year than last year. And and it's just moving and the prices are softening a little bit, but the you know, interest rates are are they came down a little bit. I mean, like so I mean all these things, but we know regardless of prices, regardless of the economy, regardless of I mean, uh the interest rates, life happens, therefore real estate happens. And so no matter what, and and we certainly saw that, you know, and people obviously with all the incredible uh experiences that we went through with Helene and and you know, there's people are still recovering. We're gonna talk about that uh this morning. But you know, again, uh the homes that weren't were not damaged and people that still had to sell their home to get closer to family, or people that were retiring, or people that were downsizing or upsizing, or you know, had a new job. I mean, like life is still still going on. And so we you know, it's a delicate conversation because again, we're there still in in our thoughts and prayers, and we're still supporting those that are in recovery, and we're supporting those that are you know having to still make that move, and we're we're helping people with that.

SPEAKER_01:

Get us in touch with the George Real Estate Group.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely. Give us a call, 828-3930134. Find us online at realestatebygreg.com, follow us on social media. We also podcast all the radio shows, and it's a privilege and honor to sponsor the Hometown Heroes series. It's a privilege and honor to serve the community through real estate. This is my 20th year with my broker's license, and we're we're excited about the next 20 years. So just grateful.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's uh it's a good place we've landed. It really, really is. Uh well, help me welcome uh Barbara and Joey Brown uh to the microphones. Good morning, folks. Good morning. How in the world are you all doing? Won't complain yet, sun's out. There you go. There you go. Well, it's so good to have you both here with us. Uh, you are with an organization called Crosses for Hope. Yep. And so I guess that's the place we start. Tell us about that.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, it actually all started with uh it was uh Saturday after the storm hit. Come up with about 30 sabbicides and some friends and a bunch of supplies, and went around to do what we could do, and it was like everywhere we went, everyone we talked to was like, I'm fine, thank you. Can you check on my neighbor? And it was just like we were like, we're We're here to help you. Do people like this even exist? Are we in a are we in a dream world? But yeah, I mean, it was like every all day long, every single house we stopped at, we were fine. Can you check on my neighbor? And it was just like it just kept going, kept going, kept going. People seeing people with nothing, helping their neighbors clean tree limbs out of their grassy yard that lost nothing, just you know, just it was amazing and went home and tried to pretty much sell everything we owned to get a cyber side, because at the time that's what you had to have here to get around to get to anybody, and God had other plans. He said, No. He said, I want you to build a cross and take it to uh uh Western North Carolina. So I did. Went to Swantonova with it at Silverado's and I thought that was the only one. No, twelve crosses later.

SPEAKER_00:

Um But what do you mean you built a cross? I mean you built a large cross.

SPEAKER_03:

Red cedar trees and a chainsaw and rough cut them and cleaned them up and resined them to where for hope pretty much last forever. I mean Wow. Yeah, and then yeah, and then each each cross I built, each place I came, I'd go home and the next place would come to me is you know, is started out Silverado's and then what was it was Chimney Rock, um Craigtown, Old Fort at the Bible, and God there's a Batcave, and there's just so many of them, and I actually have one at um Miss Lisa's there in Chimney Rock, the the the only one that passed away there. And then we have another one in the river up the river, and that's a that's a pretty wild story too. How that one got placed.

SPEAKER_02:

But um But the cross is it's like you know, when they asked like the meaning behind it, you know, it wasn't supposed to be like a religious meaning. It was like to give hope that tomorrow is gonna be better. Like there's hope for tomorrow. And 'cause like there was controversy, you know.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, we found out that like there it's against the law, I guess, to have religious statues and stuff like that in I guess in town on public property. Yeah, stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00:

So you had private plan now.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, so that you know, pretty much it was a struggle to get them all in here and get somewhere for them so that they could be where they needed to be, where people wanted them, you know. Because that's how all of them, you know, God told me to build the first one. The people here, they inspired the rest the rest of them because they just we're gonna be.

SPEAKER_02:

They wanted them. They they met so much.

SPEAKER_03:

There's still so many out there. I don't even know if there's enough cedar trees left on this planet to build enough crosses that people just this message us wanting the same thing, you know.

SPEAKER_02:

But we continuously run across people like even like in the work that we do in Batcave, and when they find out, you know, who we are and they're like, oh, you're the one that built that cross, and like just the inspiration that the crosses have have done to people, and you know, like they've been people that's been like on their la on their last knee kind of thing, and like just looking at them crosses has just been so inspiring to them kind of thing, and it's just yeah, I've actually had a couple that's messaged me on their way to give up and run across my cross.

SPEAKER_03:

And they're still here today, living and loving.

SPEAKER_01:

That's great. That's important. That's an incredible story, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, it never had anything to do with religion. I think it wasn't about who you believed in or what you believed or anything, it was about hope for tomorrow. Tomorrow's better. It's gotta get through today. So that's why I'm still here. Help get through today.

SPEAKER_00:

But you where are you guys from? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Anderson, South Carolina.

SPEAKER_00:

And so when you realized the storm was coming through, you said the next day you had it up here.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, it was the Saturday after because we got pretty damaged too. It took it took us a week to actually chainsaw our way out of our own. Your own place. Yeah. So because we actually helped there first, and then it's just like just worked our way on up here, and then now it's just about 10, 11 months later, still here seven days a week.

SPEAKER_00:

So you're you're now this is again, this has been again incredible mission and and the stories, and we want to share more of your stories. But now you're involved with Bat Creek uh the the Batcave Disaster. Batcave disaster relief.

SPEAKER_03:

Yes, awesome people. Awesome people. We have Mike from Sapphires, uh Shauna from I think she's out of Tennessee. We've had Pat and Gerard, some amazing, amazing volunteers have come through.

SPEAKER_02:

So how that happened, and so Yeah, it's uh So when the weather started changing and um the resin wasn't sitting from going from South Carolina to to North Carolina with the temperature change and stuff, every time that we would place a cross, for whatever reason, we'd find a way to go back to Batcave. It's like it we kept directing back to Batcave. And um we told them that their family now, you know, you can't use your family.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, we we went from doing the crosses to when we couldn't, and we started uh donating fuel to chicken feed, dog, you know, whatever we could bring up that they needed. And as I kept coming, I realized that they were struggling to get the equipment around. So my wife had a custom Corvette 79, her dream car, and we traded it for a dealy truck, went bought a trailer, and come back and been boots on the ground for about 10, 11 months now, hauling their equipment, running their equipment. I'm actually the only only one left now. Wow.

SPEAKER_02:

So he's he's full time, he stays in the middle. I'm full-time, I stay here. I come up on the weekends.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, they graciously at the moment have a house rented that I can stay in, but that's that's coming to an end shortly. But but yeah, they've been an awesome group, and and we mainly focus on like veterans, the elderly, and people that just lost it all and ain't got nobody else, you know. You know, somebody that lost everything, not somebody that lost their vacation home or something like that. You know, there's yeah, you know, priorities are a big order with us, so you know, we gotta What's a typical day like, Joey?

SPEAKER_01:

What do you what do you uh what are you gonna do when you leave here today?

SPEAKER_03:

Uh head straight back to the skist during the excavator and jump right back on them and jump back and forth to do what I gotta do, but you know rebuilding driveways and stuff and doing culverts, demoing houses. Thank God I hadn't do that for a minute. It's been a minute. That's that's the tough parts, haven't I?

SPEAKER_00:

What what story sticks out to you the most over the last twelve months?

SPEAKER_03:

Oh Lord. That would be a hard one. They're all impactful. They're all they all bring a tear to think about 'em.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I appreciate your emotion. That's uh it's very obvious that you uh you guys care for uh the people of Batcave and are working every day, and there's uh a whole lot of work left to be done, isn't there? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, there sure is. Yeah, we've been we've been out of pocket doing it our own since the beginning. We've we've done everything we could and given everything we got, but like I said, God told me to come and do this, and I'll be here till he tells me to go home.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I mean, and I it's I mean, we've heard from so many people that that have willingly picked up and spent months and left everything and left their lives back home to help people here. Can you put some perspective on that for again the I mean the joy I mean you guys you said it's been it's you're here to give, but you said what you've received.

SPEAKER_03:

I mean again the joy just the joy you guys have in serving others and I tell people all the time and they m they kind of make fun of me, but I tell them it's the best paying job I've ever had. And I ain't got a d and ain't nobody paid me a dime. You know, we've gotten a few donations here and there, and and the hubs helped us a little bit, you know, when we need it here and there, but you know, but for the most part, we've taken it out of our pocket, and I ain't never missed a dime. Best paying job. Best paying job I've ever had because you can't you can't buy gratitude, you can't buy respect, you can't Love. You you can't pay to be humbled.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, being humbled is just It's sobering, I'm sure, the experiences you've had.

SPEAKER_03:

There there's no I mean somebody could hand me all the money they had today and it still wouldn't be as much as I've been paid already just for the thanks and the love and the gratitude and uh when you are able to give somebody a septic tank or a plummon or something that has been had that in ten months.

SPEAKER_02:

Wow and be I mean, like just be able to have that, you know. Yeah. I mean, and just a look on the elderly's face, you know, that kind of thing, like there's there's no other there's nothing like it, right? I mean, but then at the same time, you know, like the things that we have to give up or he has to give up, you know, we have a a senior in high school. So like our son, you know like Landon back home, you know, he he's also come up and he's been, you know, helping out kind of thing, but but you know, it's the things that we have to give up at home to you know to do this that people don't think about too.

SPEAKER_03:

I'm just lucky. Don't regret anything. I've got a a wife that supports me and she comes up on the weekends and because I've been disabled for thirteen, fourteen years now. So if it was if it weren't for her, I probably wouldn't be here now. But she's her and a good lord the main reason all this happens.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, the folks at uh the Batcave Disaster Relief Group uh nominated you, uh nominated both of you and told us a little bit about your story and about what you're doing there. And uh we just wanted to have you up and pat you on the back and tell you we love you and thank you so much for uh we appreciate it uh outpouring.

SPEAKER_03:

We love Batcave and Mark Lynette. Awesome people. They'll have to run me out here and put signs up to keep me out now. Their family, you know how family is, you can't get rid of them.

SPEAKER_01:

I predict when that uh senior gets out of high school, you you guys will become Batcave residents. It sounds like to me.

SPEAKER_03:

I tell you what, I've been telling her all the time. I'd move here today if I had the money to live to buy property or I'd I'd live in a tent. I wouldn't care. Yeah, ain't that funny? It's ironic, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01:

Noah's got a uh certificate for you and a certificate for some uh free lunches around town, and and uh uh you also got our deepest our deepest uh gratitude for what you do. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_03:

Thank you, thank you guys. We're honored to be here.

SPEAKER_00:

Noah, see you next Friday. Absolutely. Thank you, thank you. You've built a lifetime of strength, wisdom, and independence. And here's the best part: you still have it. Every decision, every step, every next chapter is yours to choose. Selling your home isn't about letting go, it's about opening the door to more freedom, more time for what you love, more energy for the people and passions that matter most. At the George Real Estate Group, we believe independence isn't behind you. It's right here, right now. Our team goes beyond buying and selling. We're here to help you protect your wealth, preserve your legacy, and make sure Uncle Sam doesn't become your biggest benefactor. We'll guide you every step of the way towards your next chapter, your next opportunity, and your freedom on your terms. Call us at 828-393-0134. Find us online at realestatebygreg.com.

SPEAKER_01:

The George Real Estate Group is located in Flat Rock, North Carolina, near Hendersonville in Henderson County. You can find them online at realestatebygreg.com. The George Real Estate Group can be reached at 828-3930134, or stop by their office at 2720 Greenville Highway, Flat Rock, North Carolina. Tune in live each week on Thursdays at 1005 AM on WHKP 107.7 FM and 1450 A.M. or stream online at WHKP.com. Or download these podcasts wherever you get your podcasts. The George Real Estate Group brings you the WHKP Hometown Hero Series every Friday morning at 8 45.