Helping His Old Friends Get back on Their Feet, One Truckload at a Time

Jeremy Balog lived for 11 years in Asheville, North Carolina, and developed a deep fondness for the quirky mountain town and its generous people. The EquipmentShare software engineer — who now lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee — was horrified when Hurricane Helene devastated Asheville and the surrounding area on Sept. 28.

He was desperate to help his old friends, so as soon as U.S. 74 reopened outside of Asheville on Oct. 2, he loaded his truck with supplies and made the three-hour drive.

“I was basically bringing anything and everything,” Balog said. “My first load, I brought 1,000-plus pounds of water. I cleaned out my garage: shovels, chainsaw, two-cycle oil, bar oil, every gas can I had, rope, a winch. It was a grab bag of everything.”

He arrived to find an almost unrecognizable version of Asheville.

“There is a lot of stuff where it doesn’t belong,” Balog said. “There are couches on roofs, and beds stuck in trees. It’s so bad, you don’t even notice it after a while. You don’t notice that a power line is down, because all the power lines are down. You don’t notice all the things that are wrong, because everything is wrong. I’m not a nostalgic, sentimental person, but it’s sad that the Asheville I know is gone.”

On three subsequent trips, he brought more water and desperately needed items like diapers, wet wipes, cordless tools and Benadryl® — on top of everything else, the people of North Carolina are dealing with swarms of angry yellow jackets displaced by the storm. He also brought a special delivery, courtesy of his son, that summed up the spirit of his quest.

“My little boy is 3 years old, and he gave me his toys in a bag to give the kids in North Carolina so they have toys to play with in the mountains,” Balog said.

Asheville is one of many communities devastated by the recent hurricanes, and Balog is one of many EquipmentShare employees who has chosen to help. Everyone who has helped in ways large or small, organized or improvised, has embodied EquipmentShare’s mission to build better communities.  

“Why I’m in the world of equipment and why everything I’ve done the last 15 years has involved construction equipment is I truly believe we are change agents for good,” Balog said. “What we do matters. We’re building America. It is exciting to know that at EquipmentShare we can be part of the solution and help people get back on their feet.”