Good morning, 

Today’s Texas Minute is focused on just a few of the stories we’ve been getting from around the state about people helping their neighbors and communities.

I hope you are inspired by these fellow Texans as much as we are!

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Monday, March 30, 2020
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• Donna of the Once Upon A Time Bakery in Lockhart got a random phone call a few days ago. A lady in town heard the chain grocery store had stopped making pre-ordered cakes, so she asked Donna to make them instead, personally paying for 20 birthday cakes just so she could give them to kids around town who would otherwise be missing out. 
      

• Paul in Duncanville told us about Bryan Kaeser, who runs the local Mudhook Bar and Black and Bitter Cafe. “In addition to take out, he’s taking donations to give burgers to school kids, and has turned his storefront into a small grocery, selling stuff that’s been hard to find, using his restaurant supplier.”
      

• Texas Right to Life’s nonagenarian volunteer Ruby – who addresses thank you notes and the like – was furious when she found out the city and county bans meant she could not show up at the organization’s Houston office to volunteer. She made the organization’s president, Jim Graham, promise to bring her work to do at home.
     

• Duval County’s GOP Chairwoman, Mary Wilson, told us about the amazing work of Alyssa Ortiz, who has been organizing a series of fundraisers to help families who find themselves without life and health insurance.
     

• Wanda J. described one trip to the grocery store in San Antonio with her “typical” teenage son. He was “half-helping” when he suddenly sprinted down the aisle toward an elderly man who was attempting to pull the last case of bottled water from a high shelf. Her son had been able to see things had been carelessly stacked on top and were about to topple on the man. (Wanda said it took a moment for the gentleman to realize her son wasn’t trying to take the water!)
   

• Erin Anderson wrote on Friday about a new volunteer operation, started by friends and neighbors in the Metroplex’s Chinese-American community, that has been delivering critical safety supplies to healthcare workers in North Texas. Organized under the banner DFW CARE (Chinese American Relief for Epidemic), the group has raised over $90,000, purchased FDA-approved protective gear, organized volunteers, and delivered batches of supplies to local hospitals and medical personnel—all in a matter of days. 

• Is someone in your community stepping forward as a citizen-leader in the crisis? Serving their neighbors, helping the shut-in, the sick, the afflicted? Send me some details; we want to tell their stories as an encouragement for others.

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