welcome back just over a year ago the
devastating flooding caused by hurricane
Harvey wreaked havoc on schools
businesses and homes well a year later
families are still rebuilding and one
family recently received a helping hand
from KPRC channel twos bill Spencer the
Spencer solves it team and Ashley
Furniture Home Store it's early in the
morning and 48 year old Shannon brown is
starting this day the way she starts
every day taking a whole list of
expensive prescription drugs I think
this day Manson so you're getting stuck
five times a day with different needles
yeah you see Shannon must spend hundreds
of dollars every month on prescription
drugs to deal with a whole list of
physical problems including type-2
diabetes rheumatoid arthritis
fibromyalgia and nerve damage Shannon
says she battles pain every day and it's
like the pain is deep down in my balls
and I can't get to it
but Shannon's deepest most devastating
pain came almost one year ago to the day
when hurricane Harvey's massive
floodwaters came crashing in destroying
everything she owned suddenly this
single mom raising two sons including 15
year old Vincent who was autistic
was left with nothing but a nearly empty
apartment my life isn't anything
compared to some people some people dad
shannon plays down the magnitude of what
she lost but doesn't even have a bed to
sleep in for a year she's been sleeping
on a mattress but lies on the floor do
you have all these health issues all of
these pains problems with fibromyalgia
does sleeping on that bare floor does
that make it worse
yes constantly aching
left with little but the clothes on her
back that's when Shannon's son Marcel
wrote to Spencer solves it and right
away I contact the great people at
Ashley Furniture now the folks at Ashley
are bringing Shannon an entire house
full of brand-new furniture mattresses
mirrors new beds for Shannon and her
boys a cocktail table luxurious chairs
and everything else we're giving mrs.
Brown and a whole house full of
furniture we're giving her a new bedroom
set a bad a mattress a new living room
set a sofa some accent chairs yes all
together this is more than nine thousand
dollars worth of beautiful brand-new
furniture just look at Shannon's
once-barren apartment down I didn't
think I was gonna get a big butt
blessing like this oh you gonna have me
crying I've been trying not to cry okay
what an incredible fresh start for her
and joining us now is Jeff magner with
Ashley home store welcome to the show
thank you now she was just one of
hundreds of families you've helped how
many families have been helped today
we're so excited we don't help a lot of
folks it's north of 325 now that we've
been able to make furniture furniture
deliveries free furniture deliveries to
to help folks to recover totaling more
than a million dollars by the way
absolutely yes you know it's so
fantastic clearly I mean 12 months ago
this scenario that we were dealing with
much different but the mission of Ashley
that's what's so great is that it just
encompassed the whole city you not only
helped people that you didn't know but
you also helped people your employees
right absolutely we're the first thing
we did was we did have a lot of our
executive team come in and get in the
water and try to get people out to help
save them after that we did a check of
our own associates 73 of our associates
had had some effect several we're
devastated then we had to start taking
care of those folks and then immediately
turn to women's and children's shelters
folks that really were devastated to
make sure those people didn't get turned
out to the streets we got them taken
care of and new furniture for those
facilities quickly we were chatting
before this segment aired and on your
website on the social responsibility tab
there are all kinds of different
organizations I was reading about that
you guys have partnered with you also
partnered with deshaun Watson to offer
about three grand worth of furniture to
Habitat for Humanity
absolutely did so we found out after we
got some things done with the women's
and children's shelters we realized that
next would be folks who maybe a little
bit underprivileged folks that like how
about that families that to whole
neighborhoods were devastated so we
found out the Habitat for Humanity in
Houston had two entire neighborhoods 176
homes that were completely damaged and
devastated so we partnered with deshaun
Watson who actually of course grew up in
a habitat home that was given to him by
an NFL player perfect match and we got
together and we were able to let them
come into our stores on two big shopping
nights select the product that they
wanted to and we've delivered all but
five of those now because of not having
their house ready but all the rest have
been delivered and we had a great
partnership with the Shawn to get that
taken care of and take care of those
folks one thing quick interest there is
that 65 of those families had moved here
as a result of Katrina and so we took
care of those folks that had the same
thing happen to him basically twice
since a way to make sure we could take a
really good care of those folks as well
you know it's such a great story truly
is and and we heard from Shannon in that
piece to the medical issues and sleeping
on the floor these are things that you
know on an everyday basis we free if we
don't see it right in front of us we
forget we don't know what's happening
but Harvey really brought all of that to
the forefront and that must be a really
proud moment for you in the company
absolutely we've always had it in our
DNA to help and we've done the furniture
giveaways in bed giveaways to children
who don't have mattresses and sleep on
for a long time hundreds at a time but
this gave us a real chance to really
jump in there and go the extra mile and
help folks who really needed it well and
it does underscore we're seeing some
photos by the way of deshaun Watson it's
so great that you guys have partnered up
with him and that he is giving back as
well can you explain to us you said it's
in the DNA of Ashley home store to give
back but I feel like these are really
concrete examples underscoring that you
guys are here for the community
absolutely we are here we're Houston
strong we've been here for a long long
time we were able to partner with the
Rockets dream soon after this event with
the Shona Gate 100 kids that needed beds
to sleep on there were mostly Harvey
victims to do with a hundred of those at
one time obviously there's nothing more
houston than Houston Rockets right yeah
we did that as well and just every
opportunity we can to on every turn to
try to help out Jeff magner with Ashley
home store thank you so much for
stopping by thank you for all your work
in the community and we should point out
that there are 14 area locations in
Houston and if you all out there would
like to learn
more about Ashley Furniture home stores
great work in the community you can
check out Ashley Furniture calm and look
for the social responsibility attack