Friends rally to support Marysville burn victim

Published 11:04 pm Thursday, August 20, 2009

MARYSVILLE — Jon Bailey has always taken care of his community.

Now, it’s time for the community to take care of him.

Bailey, 47, was working in his garage May 9 when chemicals he was working with caught fire. He suffered serious burns and spent weeks recovering at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

“It’s been a real challenge for them as a family,” said Susan Schroeter, 47, of Mukilteo.

Schroeter and her husband grew so close with Jon and Kathy Bailey over the years, they refer to the couple as their chosen family.

Word quickly got around about Jon Bailey’s misfortune, and people in the community pulled together.

“He’s just one of those people who always reaches out to the community around him,” Schroeter said.

Neighbors and friends at church know Bailey as a man who always extends his hand to others, such as when he tried learning sign language to work with deaf kids when he taught Sunday school at his church.

His burns are healing, but loved ones don’t know if he’ll ever be able to go back to work full time.

He still attends physical therapy. He was scheduled to go back to the hospital again this week. Meanwhile, the family’s medical bills climbed into hundreds of thousands of dollars, Schroeter said.

Local churches led the effort to raise money to help the Baileys, Schroeter said.

Earlier this month, a local improv group, Mukilteo Improv Team, held a fundraiser.

Schroeter’s daughter Rebekah, 19, and her boyfriend Randall Knapp, 22, are part of the group.

Schroeter recalled seeing the Baileys laugh that night.

“It’s been a long time since they’d laughed that hard, and they really needed that,” she said.

After Jon got hurt, Knapp designed a Web site, http://randallknapp.com/helpjon, to help keep people in the loop.

“A lot of people care about Jon,” he said.

Katya Yefimova: 425-339-3452, kyefimova@heraldnet.com.