Family steps up to help at Hometown Heroes shelter
Photos and Story By: Valerie Wells The Daily News
League City councilman Greg Gripon stacks Salvation Army kits at the shelter at Hometown Heroes Park in
League City on Saturday, September 2, 2017
Councilman Greg Gripon seized the reins of Hometown Heroes Park the morning of Aug. 27 as League City residents fled rising water from the deluge of Hurricane Harvey.
A fellow graduate of the city’ s Citizen Police Academy had called him that chaotic morning to say the city was about to open the facility at the park as a shelter for evacuees.
“ I jumped in my vehicle and zoomed down,” Gripon said.
His home didn’ t flood, but about 6,000 League City houses did take water in during the historical rainfall that overwhelmed the creeks and the people who lived near them. As many as 500 people sought refuge at Hometown Heroes Park, although the number was down to 200 by Saturday.
Nine Federal Emergency Management Administration representatives visited the shelter Sunday to work with the remaining evacuees to help them get housing vouchers or some other place to stay that wasn’ t a temporary shelter.
“ I expect all of them to be gone by Friday,” Gripon said.
Greg Gripon and his son Justin Gripon walked in the facility right after the doors opened Aug. 27.
“ This family took on Hometown Heroes Park,” Mayor Pat Hallisey said.“ It’ s the best-run shelter anywhere in Galveston County or in the Houston area.”
The Gripons already knew the place well, especially the kitchen. Every Sunday morning, they and other members of the Lions Club serve breakfast to area senior citizens. This Sunday, the Lions Club had a“ super senior breakfast,” inviting all the seniors in the area to the free meal along with the remaining shelter residents.
“ It helps to have a big kitchen,” Justin Gripon said.
Greg’ s wife, LaTonnia Gripon, organized the front of the building, signing in evacuees, volunteers and donations. His daughter Ashely Gripon helped in the kitchen and also helped to run the desk.
The shelter became a collection point for donations of canned beans, children’ s clothes, dog food, diapers and cheese crackers. Evacuees brought pets in crates and their lives in suitcases and garbage bags.
“ I want to make this a home for them,” Greg Gripon said.
Because so many restaurants donated meals during the first few days, no one had to buy food to feed the shelter inhabitants, he said.
The Salvation Army had stepped in by Saturday to provide some of the meals, Justin Gripon said.
A team of nine women sat at a roundtable in the shelter Saturday compiling a spreadsheet listing local hotels that accept FEMA vouchers.
They listed which ones that had available rooms, whether they accepted pets, what the people limit was per room and whether a cash deposit or identification was needed, League City resident Joanna Sasiene said.
“ They just started this project on their own,” Greg Gripon said.
Justin Gripon has had unexpected cat naps as the stress of the week caught up with him Saturday.
“ I found myself snoring,” he said.
He sprayed a bleach-based cleaner on the top of a steel cart, wiped it clean then put fresh paper on it.
11 MOMENTUM / September 2017
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