The Hurricane Harvey is all over media these days, and there is no way that you don’t know what is going on over in Texas, but there is one thing you possibly didn’t know. That is the fact that Dallas Cowboys managed to raise more than $2 million during a 90-minute telethon which was broadcasted live locally and on social media. The other thing is that Jerry Jones opened up and made a donation of $1 million by himself to The Salvation Army. These donations that are pouring in from all over will definitely help Salvation Army’s efforts to help those affected by Hurricane Harvey.
To make his donation Jones had the call the telethon and on the receiving end was wide receiver Dez Bryant who gave a statement on this topic – “Mr. Jones being Mr. Jones. I think it was great. A real super cool thing, he donated a million dollars. That’s a lot of money. It was great. It was so great to see these guys, us, teaming with Salvation Army to try to put that smile back on Houston’s face. Anything that we could do to help, you all can see we’re doing it. And we can only imagine. We don’t know how they’re feeling. They need love and support right now, and I think we’re doing an outstanding job of doing it.”
The idea for this telethon came to Cowboys after having to cancel their Wednesday’s preseason game against the Houston Texans. They decided to help out and take the call themselves which is why this telethon hosted more than 30 current players plus some formers players like Hall of Famers Emmitt Smith and Tony Dorsett, Dixon Edwards, Tony Casillas and Tyler Clutts. Cole Beasley never once took a break during the 90 min telethon, stated that “It’s actually a lot tougher than you’d think from far away, but it was good. A lot of people were calling in, and it wasn’t like, “Oh, Dallas Cowboys, cool, I get to talk to you.” They were about their business, and people really wanted to donate money, so it was a great thing.” According to Beasley, he didn’t have the luck like Dez Bryant, but his highest donation was around $500, and all others were quite close to that number as well.
Beasley continued by saying “You want to help any way that you can. If we’re going to be here and not there helping, we have to do something, so got to be as productive as we can with the time that we have. I think a lot of the guys, all of them did take it seriously and did a good job of taking as many phone calls as we could. I don’t know how much money we made today for Houston, but hopefully we did our part.” We also managed to find out that Bryant headed to a local Sam’s Club right after the telethon finished, and filled up not one but two U-Haul trucks with food, water, and other necessities, and went to deliver them to the Salvation Army. Bryant, who already made a $50,000 donation to The Salvation Army earlier that week, stated “I hate that this situation had to happen, but the good thing about it is it brings unity. This is the perfect opportunity to show unity. I think we’re doing a great job of it. Hopefully when everything gets back where it needs to be, us seeing Houston smile, hopefully the great state of Texas can show what real unity is.”
