Baseball Legend Curt Schilling Teams up with Operation Blessing for Hurricane Relief

After Hurricane Harvey devastated the Gulf Coast, people from around the country went down to help, including several celebrities. And when baseball legend Curt Schilling arrived on the scene, he decided to team up with Operation Blessing.

Operation Blessing has provided disaster relief response in Rockport, Texas for weeks. 

Schilling, a three-time World Series pitcher, recently pulled into town driving an RV with a horse trailer attached, filled with generators, chain saws, dehumidifers, heavy duty garbage bags, work gloves, and more to unload.  

"I'm just facilitating the transportation of the items. So this is from the town of Metro, Massachusetts, and actually all of the state of Massachusetts," he said.  

Curt says people from all over Massachussetts donated money, and then disaster supplies were purchased to aid in the massive recovery effort needed in the Gulf.   

"I told people think about walking out of your front door with your family, soaking wet, then walking down to your high school gym and living for 4 months. What would you need every day? I was headed into Houston and out of the state, and I kept getting texts about Rockport, and I knew I had heard Rockport had been devastated, and so had Aransas and a bunch of other places around here. So I said, 'I got to do this,'" he explained.

Curt and the people of Massachusetts wanted to ensure all these recovery supplies went directly to the people, so they choose Operation Blessing right here in Rockport, the place Hurricane Harvey first made landfall.

"What I like to look for is getting involved with companies, in places, and people, and organizations that give direct. I'm doing that down here but this is also one of those operations that, you're boots on the ground. You're here, you're handing stuff directly to people. And they're going directly to their homes to fix them," he said.   

Curt spoke with Operation Blessing's deployment manager in Rockport, Sheila Griffin, and asked her to text him a list of what they needed.  

"He was about 100 miles outside of Rockport and (he) said 'Shelia, tell me your needs. Whatever you need I'll deliver it tomorrow afternoon.' It's really kinda of overwhelming to think that there is an individual or group of individuals even that want to come out and do that for literally people they don't know at all. And it's just a testament to mankind and people who want to be the hands and feet of Jesus, to literally make that happen," Griffin said.

"I made a stop at the Home Depot and had like the ultimate guys shopping spree. The cameras are going to leave here if they haven't already left, and the disaster doesn't go with them. It stays here and these people are rebuilding. And groups like Operation Blessing will be here through pretty much all the phases,  and I like that," Curt said.