Helping REVIVE Rockport

ROCKPORT — They wasted no time grabbing pieces of twisted metal, downed branches and disembodied tubing.

“A trampoline, the hurricane just blew it in,” said one of the kids from the Boys & Girls Clubs of Harlingen who arrived Sunday at the home of Esperanza Hernandez in Rockport.

Hernandez, 70, stood on the deck of her mobile home amid a stand of contorted oak trees. She’s had little to smile about lately, having lost so much to the mindless wrath of Hurricane Harvey.

But the five kids who suddenly bailed out of a van put a gorgeous smile on her face.

“It’s a lot of help,” she said, nodding with gratitude.

Chuy Mendoza, 16, wrapped his thick arms around a roll of metal hurricane fencing and carried it to a large pile of debris across the street. His sister Yessica Mendoza, 14, and Leily Contreras, 16, grabbed armfuls of branches and carried them to a large mound of wooden wreckage on Esperanza’s lot.

“I feel relieved I don’t have to do that,” she said, watching the kids helping her out.

She seemed at once as happy by the help as she was by the youthful enthusiasm and generosity of the kids.

“I do a little bit in the afternoon,” she said. “I have high blood pressure and it makes me dizzy, that and the diabetes.”

Now Chuy and Agustin Martinez grasped a stack of boards on either end and carried them to the same pile across the street.

Boys & Girls Clubs Unit Directors Alma Dones and Hilda Gathright also collected armfuls of trash away from the lot as did Gerald Gathright, director of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Harlingen.

And in the midst of all this was the orphaned trampoline whose very presence demonstrated the power of the hurricane.

It wasn’t Esperanza’s, but Harvey had landed it in her yard just the same. Staff member Bobby Huff and Jose Mendoza, 12, coordinated their efforts to carry the disfigured metal frame of the trampoline away.

All the kids moved with a fast and energetic drive that anyone would find inspiring.

When they’d arrived, Esperanza’s yard looked like a dumping ground for everything Harvey could find to throw her way. In one hour, the kids had transformed it back into a home and yard again.

It would seem Esperanza couldn’t be happier, but she was in for a surprise. She appeared at first caught in a moment of indecision as everything seemed to stop. Everyone gathered around her and Yessica faced her with a smile on her face. Yessica, a student at the Dr. Abraham P. Cano Freshman Academy, had something in her hand. Something green.

“Oh,” said Esperanza, putting her hand to her face as Yessica gave her a monetary donation of $100.

Yessica and the rest of the crew embraced her and she was overcome by the warmth shown her.

“I feel so blessed,” she said.

So did Yessica.

“I really wanted her to have something for her kids,” she said. “It really meant a lot to me to help people in need,” she said.

“I’ve been through a lot and I know how it feels when you lose something especially if you have a family and there are kids and you’ve lost your home.”

Dones was proud of the kids.

“They’re always ready to help,” she said. “They went up there without being forced. That really makes me happy. It shows there’s hope for the future.”

Esperanza considered herself lucky for many reasons. The kids had come to help, and her roof was still keeping out the rain. She wondered what her children and grandchildren would do. Their homes had been destroyed. Some would soon move in with her when school opens next.

But what then?