H-E-B was also on hand to surprise two Hill Country organizations with major donations to fuel recovery efforts.
SAN ANTONIO — A pair of Texas institutions teamed up Monday to provide more support to the Hill Country as the region continues to recover from devastating July floods that tore through communities in that part of the state.
Fort Worth native and Grammy-winning singer Kelly Clarkson welcomed Kerrville-area school bus drivers to an episode of the show which aired Monday, where they recounted jumping into action in the wake of the natural disaster to rescue hundreds of children who needed evacuation when the Guadalupe River rose.
The drivers shared emotional testimony about navigating Kerr County where trees were uprooted, RVs washed away and homes torn from their foundations on July 4. The floods killed 117 people in Kerr County alone, including 27 young girls and counselors at Camp Mystic.
“As soon as we got that call and what it was about, we were out the door heading to the transportation office getting in our bus, flying down the road to get to those kids,” one driver recalled on the show. “The trip out there was devastating.”
Afterward, an H-E-B representative – who said the tragedy has “been personal” to the grocery store pillar, which opened its first location in Kerrville – surprised the guests with two $50,000 checks: One for the Children’s Bereavement Center of South Texas and one for the Kerrville Public School Foundation.
“We all know that the teachers, the principals, the counselors, the school bus drivers are the backbone of our school districts, especially in Kerrville ISD,” the H-E-B rep said on the show, to applause from the crowd.
Clarkson went on to pay additional tribute to the school bus drivers, saying they were heroes before the floods arrived.
H-E-B has been active in the recovery efforts. The company and its foundation provided a $5 million donation to local nonprofits in the days after the flood, in addition to deploying its mobile kitchen to some of the hardest-hit communities to feed survivors and first responders.
The Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country is still accepting donations for relief efforts.