Letter to the Editor

I am learing as I go. I just wrote a story and decided to check it and found out I should have saved it as a draft. I lost the whole thing. Oh well.

I wrote a letter to the editor of our daily rag here concerning the event our community had in raising food, diapers, water, and hygene supplies for the victoms of Hurricane Katrina. Our daily paper advertised the event, but sadly, did not send anyone over to cover it. It was their loss. The letter speaks for itself. I share it here.

Dear Editor,

Yesterday, September 2nd, I had the opportunity to participate in an event that touched me, my wife, and hundreds of our local citizens. HEB sponsored a drive for relief supplies for the victims of Hurricane Katrina and the community responded in a way that made me proud of my fellow Central Texans. My wife and I simply went to pay our Alltel bill and visit with our daughter and son-in-law working with the relief effort. After just a few minutes watching we decided we could not be there and not be working. So we rolled up our sleeves and went to work. What we saw and participated in was moving and brought many people to tears.

People were coming out of the HEB store with shopping carts full of water, diapers, canned goods, jars of peanut butter, cereal, personal hygiene items, and on and on. I saw people who looked like they had shopped for their weeks supply of groceries, and pushed their cart to the loading area and said “here you go”, and left the cart. One lady brought a cart loaded with diapers….and there were as many diapers above the top of the cart as there were in the cart itself. Some gave out of their abundance, and some gave what they could. One lady handed me a jar of peanut butter and a box of pop tarts and apologized for not having enough money to give more. One retired soldier brought an eighteen foot flat bed trailer loaded with 24 packs of water….not once, but twice. Each of his loads was transferred to two pallets.

People came with cash and checks. Ten’s, twenties, fifties and one hundred dollar bills filled the cash box at the table where cash donations were being accepted. Checks were written for hundreds of dollars by folks just wanting to help their neighbors in the devastated areas. Local businesses donated thousands of dollars. My son-in-law, a manager with HEB, brought a check a local auto dealer gave him for one thousand dollars. Another local business donated an entire “eighteen wheeler” full of water. People were stopping in their cars to unload items purchased elsewhere, then parked their car and got out and helped load and unload for hours. It was absolutely amazing.

I helped unload two vans with goods donated by the children and their families from Sugar Loaf Elementary School.

Some of the local media was there covering the story. I worked side by side with the B106.3 radio personality there doing live coverage. When he wasn’t on the air doing a report, he was unloading water and peanut butter. Television stations were covering the event as well.

Someone remarked at the beginning of the day he thought we would be lucky to get one truck load. Someone else told him he didn’t know this community very well. In the end, there were seven eighteen wheelers loaded with commodities and love from the people of Central Texas, not including what was collected in the Temple and Waco areas. It was a moving experience, and a great day. And I didn’t mention all the people who helped. A majority of the HEB employees working on the effort were volunteers…on their day off. Others just stopping by and asking “What can I do to help?” It wasn’t done to get their picture in the paper or to be on the TV news, it was and effort born out of love and concern for our brothers and sisters whose lives will never be the same again. As I reflect back on what was done yesterday, hopefully our lives will be changed forever, for the better.



R. Frank Pritchard