DAVID BAILEY MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP

David Bailey Memorial Scholarship Application - 69kb (MS Word)

NOVA will set up, and make an annual contribution, to the scholarship fund.
Donations can be sent to:

NOVA Rugby
P.O. Box 3915
Merrifield, VA 22116-3915

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From the Washington Post --

Where in the world is Dave Bailey?

That's the question Bailey's sister, Leigh Anne Adusei, 34, of Burke would often ask about her globetrotting brother, five years her junior, as he backpacked in South America and Europe in recent years.

Sometimes several days would pass before Bailey, who grew up in Burke, sent an e-mail or made a phone call from an Internet cafe to assure his sister and parents that he was fine. Usually, though, he was eager to relay the details of his latest adventure and share the ironies he found in the wide extremes of his day-to-day experiences.

“One night he would be sharing a bottle of wine and hot dogs in a tar paper shack, and the next day he would be shaking the hands of the president of Chile,” said his mother, Carol Bailey of Burke.

As he trekked across Argentina and Chile, as he did in 2003, and Spain, Italy and Romania, last year, he seemed to carry with him deep impressions of the cultures and traditions he encountered. Among them were spiritually uplifting street processions celebrating Holy Week in Sevilla, Spain, and the wonderment of seeing firsthand Leonardo da Vinci's painting “The Last Supper.”

Bailey, who had short dirty-blond hair, blue eyes and a square jaw, was also armed with a wide grin and gregarious, congenial manner that helped him make friends easily.

His first extensive trip overseas began in fall 2003, when he started a year-long teaching assignment in South Korea. It was one of three trips he would make to Korea to teach math and English to middle-school-age children.

Bailey came from a family with a long tradition in education. His father, Thomas Bailey, is a Lutheran minister in Burke. His mother is a Fairfax County teacher, two aunts taught kindergarten and a grandfather worked as a principal.

In between his work in Korea and traveling overseas, Bailey played as many games as possible with the Northern Virginia Men's Rugby Club and worked off and on at Kiddie Country, a private preschool in Burke. He had started at the school as a summer lifeguard when he was a student at West Springfield High School.

Rugby had been a major part of his life since he was a teenager. He wore the number 10 jersey, indicating he played the fly-half position, otherwise known as the general of the backfield. At 5 feet 9 inches, he wasn't the biggest or most athletic person on the field, but he was generally regarded as a smart, dedicated player.

Later, after graduating from Kutztown University in Pennsylvania, where he also played rugby, Bailey began working in Kiddie Country's education program. For the past year, he was the team leader of the center's elementary school before and after school program, in charge of organizing activities for the children.

“He had a fantastic way with children,” said Nicole Fullerton, program manager at Kiddie Country. “He connected with them so well because he was funny, animated, always on”.

In recent months, Bailey, 29, talked about returning to school to earn a certificate in speech pathology, his sister said. Working in Korea had heightened his interest in the way people acquire language development.

With all that lay ahead of Bailey, his family and friends find his death hard to accept, particularly given how sudden and unexpected it was. He had a positive tuberculosis skin test and was prescribed medication. An allergic reaction to the drug resulted in fatal liver damage. He died March 3.When Bailey was once asked about his favorite quote, he picked the following: “To find happiness, be as if a child, play and share, love one another, dance and sing. Somewhere in there you may even find God.”

By Louie Estrada
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 23, 2006; Page C07