Following the devastating floods in Texas, Father Dave welcomes friend of the show Kathryn Whitaker to discuss helping others after a tragedy.
Kathryn is a sixth-generation Texan, and describes first hearing about how the floods impacted summer camps along the Guadalupe River. “Camp is the one last place that I felt like hadn’t been touched by tragedy. I was a camp kid and counselor, and my kids are actually leaving for camp in a few days,” she says. “We heard about the tragedy as it was unfolding before it broke nationally. Some friends of ours owned some summer camps along the Guadalupe River, and a bridesmaid in my son’s wedding was a counselor at Camp Mystic [years before]. We were hearing stories, and it just kept getting worse. I kept thinking, This isn’t real. [I hoped] it wasn’t going to be as bad as they said, and it was even worse.”
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She describes feeling moved to help beyond a simple monetary donation. “For the first 36 hours, I wanted to do something, but I didn’t know what,” Kathryn says. “My aunt, my [late] dad’s sister, texted me to check in on us and she said, ‘I’m sure that you’ll find a way to help.’ It sort of felt like a little nudge from my dad and from the Holy Spirit. I started really praying like, ‘Jesus, can you please make it apparent, how do you want us to help? Even if that’s simply praying a Rosary as a family, what do you want us to do?’”
Kathryn’s children are involved in Texas 4-H, a youth development program, and their chapter began collecting gift cards for families affected by the floods and first responders. “When I heard that they were collecting these gift cards and that it was going to be the Kerr County agents distributing them, I thought [to put] that up in my Instagram stories — maybe people can Venmo me, and then I’ll buy the gift cards,” she says, saying she expected to raise a few thousand dollars.
“I woke up the next morning, I was like, Oh, we raised $5,000 and then I thought maybe $8,000 would be a reach goal. Seventy-two hours later, we raised over $33,000, and I really pretty much cried for 72 hours straight at the continued generosity of people,” Kathryn says. “We have been on the receiving end of help, and so to know that we were doing that for some people…it hit me deep and wide.”
She continues, “When you’ve experienced grief, you know what it feels like when someone shows up for you. If we can show up in the smallest of ways, like if it means that somebody can buy groceries today, or they can go to Home Depot and get the drill that they need, then that’s the way that God’s going to ask us to show up. I was just so overwhelmed that it resonated with so many people [who donated] from all 50 states and three different countries. It’s overwhelmingly beautiful that that was what God asked me to do.”
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They discuss how it was not as simple as she expected to purchase that amount of gift cards in a short amount of time. “Let’s just say, in a week and a half, Kathryn learned a lot about fraud, your bank and when they shut down your account — not once, but multiple times. I learned about limits from Venmo as to how much you can transfer in a certain period of time. I don’t want to brag, but I’m kind of a gift card connoisseur now,” Kathryn laughs.
She describes how all of these interactions while purchasing the gift cards moved her in unexpected ways. “We got some gift cards at [Raising Canes] so that people could eat. The cashier asked, ‘Who are the lucky people to get all these gift cards?’ When I told him, the man and the manager both teared up, and they’re like, ‘We just need a minute.’ And I said, ‘It’s okay, everybody needs a minute. Let’s just pass out some Kleenexes.’ There were many powerful moments of witness, and my kids were with me for some of those.”
Kathryn continues, “People gave real money, and they entrusted me to make sure that it got to the right people. Then those people, in love, are giving it to the people that needed it. It just felt very personal.” While Kathryn is no longer collecting funds for gift cards, she encourages those who would like to donate to flood relief in Texas to give to Catholic Charities San Antonio and Notre Dame Catholic Church in Kerrville, Texas.
