Momentum - Business to Business Online Magazine September 2017 | Page 13

“We have to keep things clean,” Justin Gripon said. “We
don’t want these people getting sick.”
Volunteer John Bowen ladled sausage gravy over
biscuits, then poured orange juice for breakfast diners
Saturday morning.
The shelter also fed first responders, volunteers and other
residents in the community who weren’t staying there, the
Gripons said.
“I want this to be a shining space where everybody
smiles,” Justin Gripon said. “Hot meals make people
happy.”
Justin Gripon has planned meals through Friday.
League City Mayor, Pat Hallisey, left, thanks councilman Greg Gripon,
right, for his work at Hometown Heroes Park.
On the second or third day the shelter was open — Justin
Gripon can’t remember anymore which day it was — he
broke down and cried after a woman with a walker came
into the shelter.
“I grabbed her some food, sat down and said a prayer
with her,” Justin Gripon said. “Then I had a moment. I
broke down.”
A crew from the television cable network Animal Planet
came to the shelter to do a story about the pets there.
And NBC Nightly News broadcast a story about humans
of the shelter.
“They wanted to interview me,” Greg Gripon said. “But I
said no, interview the people who came here.”
League City Councilman Greg Gripon speaks with his son Justin at the
Hometown Heroes Park Shelter
Hometown Heroes Park wasn’t the only disaster relief spot
where the Gripons were active after Hurricane Harvey.
Greg and LaTonnia Gripon spent much of the weekend at
the old Kroger store at FM 518 and Interstate 45 that has
become a disaster relief supply depot. Two trucks loaded
with donations arrived at the site Saturday morning, and
the Gripons were among the volunteers unloading and
organizing the supplies in some logical order.
The center opened at 11 a.m. Sunday for shelters,
churches and city employees, but residents in need lined
up at 10 a.m. to get bottled water, diapers, food and
bleach.
“We are getting about 100 people an hour here,” Greg
Gripon said. “And there’s still a line.”
League City Councilman Greg Gripon gets a hug from Linda McKillip
while working in the kitchen at the Hometown Heroes Park Shelter.
MOMENTUM / September 2017
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