San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Helpers are more powerful than any storm
We will recall how at first the snow delighted, then froze Texas. We will remember the frustration, helplessness and lessons learned. But we must also hold in our memories and hearts and plans those who, against arduous odds, served our most vulnerable in this humanitarian crisis.
“I’m in absolute awe at the power of our community,” Michael Vela, executive director of the San Antonio Chapter of the Red Cross, shared.
The helpers — paid and unpaid — included medical, utility and public works staff, first responders, cadets, city, county and state leaders, nonprofits, grocery workers and community activists. VIA Metropolitan Transit drivers whose routes were suspended four days — the first time in its 43-year history that service was halted more than a few hours — provided 210 emergency transports, including 129 bus and 81 van trips to and from warming centers, local shelters and dialysis centers.
State Rep. Diego Bernal, DSan Antonio, focused on getting water barrels donated. He called the community’s efforts — especially the efforts by activists — heroic. “From one neighbor to another, thank you ...” he said.
Community activist Queta Rodriguez, deemed “February Freeze Disaster Hero for 2021” by Bexar County Pct. 4 Commissioner Tommy Calvert, gathered 200 elderly from apartments. She summoned Calvert and others to find hotel rooms, transportation, food and water.
An elderly man transferred to the Grand Hyatt asked her if there would be food. “I told him yes and he cried, saying, ‘Thank you. Thank you!,’ ” she said.
U.S. Rep. Alexandria OcasioCortez, D-N.Y., raised $5 million and volunteered in Houston. Former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke raised more than $1.4 million and, with other volunteers, knocked on doors and delivered water and food.
Businesses got back to work. “H-E-B values Texas families more than their bottom line,” one man who was at the store tweeted after a Round Rockarea store gave away groceries when power was lost. On Thursday, H-E-B announced a $1 million donation to Texas food banks in addition to donations of 23 truckloads of food and
nearly $100,000 in meal donations.
Actress and philanthropist Eva Longoria Bastón delivered food to raise awareness. “My heart breaks,” she told San Antonio Food Bank CEO Eric Cooper. “I want to feel useful.” Cooper thanked the food bank’s volunteers — up 40 percent to 1,400 per week — who were showing up to “fight hunger and feed hope” to an additional 7,000 — a total of 24,000 people served per day.
Churches opened their doors and their wallets. Community Bible Church raised $180,000 in donations for families displaced by apartment fires. They grilled and gave away some 10,000 donated Chick-fil-A grilled chicken filets and sandwiches. “We believe in radical generosity
— we are not just going to give —we are going to give radically,” said Josh Boren, communications director.
Journalists collected stories, typed and edited by candlelight, and submitted via intermittent WiFi. San Antonio Express-News photographers Billy Calzada and Kin Man Hui walked to work due to treacherous roads.
Extraordinary stories of the helpers are still surfacing, but as leaders take inventory of the causes of the man-made crisis, they must not forget — we must not forget — about the community helpers who looked past their own hardships, banding together in an underground network that begged for resources. With zero formal training and very little support, they were the the angels who helped our city’s most vulnerable.
Robert Burns, a retired Army nurse in Florida who served 10 years in San Antonio, said his friends needed plumbing materials, and he was horrified to learn about the 11-year-old Conroe boy who died from hypothermia. “I gotta get out there,” Burns thought. He posted his Venmo for donations. “I rented the largest truck I could find — 26 feet — and parked at Walmart and asked for donations. I bought all of the pipe that Lowe’s had — 2,000 feet — and I left sunny Florida to get on the road.”
He asked his friend Marisa Bono, VIA chief strategic officer and civil rights attorney, to coordinate distribution, and she did. “I was inundated with requests,” said Bono. Burns received items and 136 donations from $1 to $1,000 for a total of $10,175. “Every donation was important. This was personal, some attached notes and pictures of saints to the cans.”
Burns stopped at Walmarts along his 30-hour drive for more items: water, underwear, shoes, socks, diapers, wipes and formula. His trip took 30 hours. He arrived at San Antonio Councilman Roberto Treviño’s office at 1 a.m. Monday with 2,000 feet of pipe and supplies; distribution began with the councilman’s staff and about 30 volunteers — some complete strangers — at 7:30 a.m. Everything was gone in a few hours. “I was really touched,” Bono said. “Everyone had gone through their own experiences, yet here they were to serve.”