Last August the city of Rockport, Texas
was hit hard by Hurricane Harvey.
The storm wiped out a majority of its homes, schools,
and businesses.
The town's only high school was severely damaged
and their gym was completely destroyed.
Through all of this, the girls volleyball team
and their community fought on.
Take a look.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Hi, I'm Allison Sanders.
Hey, I'm Krista Taylor.
Hi, my name is Lexa Sprog.
I am Karis Hawkins, I'm 17.
And I'm a sophomore and volleyball player.
And I'm a volleyball player at Rockport-Fulton High School.
At the beginning of the year, basically all
I was thinking about was first time being on varsity.
Being in the Gold Gym and playing volleyball
there was like the thing that you wanted to do.
You wanted to be a varsity volleyball player
and have everyone watch you Friday nights.
Before Harvey, I looked forward to my senior year
and being able to have those moments that every senior gets.
And I kind of didn't get those moments.
This is going to make me cry.
But I think, overall, I got more out of it than I probably ever
would have.
[WAVE CRASHING] Harvey barrelled ashore overnight
packing 130 mile an hour winds.
The eye of the massive hurricane moved right over Rockport.
Entire blocks are decimated.
The local high school took a direct hit.
The moment I realized how bad it was when we were um--
we get pictures of our gym and it was just everywhere.
It was like a second home for us and then
just seeing it destroyed was just like so devastating.
Our coach finally let us go in there and look around.
And then I looked down and there's a picture of all of us.
It was barely visible because it did get so wet,
but it was still there.
It just kind of gave, kind of an odd sense of hope.
After Harvey, you could just see everyone really come together
to help everyone out.
Because Rockport is such a tight-knit community,
I think the need to help was so much greater.
Coach texted us and said, we're still
going have a volleyball season.
Getting to go through this experience together
strengthened our bond so much.
You always have a choice to make the best out of a situation.
Having that positive mindset and wanting to make it better
is really what got us through Harvey.
I couldn't have done it without my team and my coaches
and the people in my community.
That was Rockport-Fulton High School volleyball team.
And right now they're in the town's middle school gym.
They gathered with their entire school
because they think they're filming a video for ellentube.
But I'm going to give them a little surprise.
So let's do that now.
I want you to take a look.
Hey guys look up there.
[SCREAMING]
Hi.
[APPLAUSE]
Hi, everybody.
Hi, Ellen.
Hi.
Hi, everybody.
They are very surprised.
[CHEERING]
Listen up, listen up.
So, hello, first of all.
I heard your amazing story.
I think you're all incredible.
So Hurricane Harvey hit your town almost eight months ago.
You've been through a lot.
It's Karis, where's Karis?
Hi.
Hi So how's everyone in the community doing?
Hey, Ellen.
OK.
How's everybody doing?
OK.
Well, if you just take a look around Rockport,
you can see there's still destruction everywhere.
There's still people, uh, sorry.
You're excited, right?
Yeah, it's Ellen.
There's still people displaced.
There's people still out of jobs because their jobs were ruined.
So much has happened.
But the thing is, is we have our community.
And we're really tight with each other.
We have our friends, we have our family, we have our teams.
So, we're OK.
We're doing good.
I love hearing that.
That's what's amazing about your story.
That's what I love.
I mean, you've lost so much and yet everyone came together
to help the community.
Allison, tell us about how everyone came together
and what's happening now.
So it actually-- we were out of school for two months.
And of course, that's really rough.
So we felt like we had to do something.
And so, it actually started with our coaches.
And every day we would come up at 4:00 o'clock.
The football team, the volleyball girls,
and eventually I reached out on Twitter.
And other people from other communities,
there were other families, other students
from nearby towns that just--
they took the time out of their days to help us.
And we actually made an agenda.
And every single day, we would go to someone else's house
within the community and just do the best
we could to make things better within our town.
So--
That's amazing.
So your gym was completely destroyed,
but you somehow still managed to play the entire season.
Where are Coach Clark and Coach Bickle?
Where are you two?
Come on up, you guys.
Come on up.
Say hit to Ellen.
Hi, Ellen.
Hi, hi.
Hi.
OK, so explain how that's possible.
Where did they, where did you play?
Well we really just saw the good in humanity.
So many people reached out and teams reached out to us
to do fundraisers.
And they raised money so we could
buy equipment and uniforms.
And nearby schools offered their gyms
so we could have places to practice.
We'd have to play all of our home games away
and those schools really took us in and just were so kind to us
and treated us like family.
Not only competitors, but we were their friends.
And I know it was our main concern just
to take care of the girls.
We wanted them to feel comfortable.
And we wanted them it felt like they
had a home, when in reality their home was destroyed.
Wow, that's amazing.
OK so, all right.
Obviously, I want to help.
So I have a surprise for your school.
But not yet.
I'll come back and try to imagine what it is.
We'll be back.
I know that your gym was more than just a gym to all of you.
It was important to your entire community.
Allison, tell us about that.
I know growing up, especially, everyone looks forward
to having those moments and being on those varsity teams
and getting to have your community
and your family and everyone there to support you.
And I know personally, I spent more time in that gym
than I do at home.
So losing it was-- sorry.
It was really devastating.
And it just means a lot to everyone within the community.
I'm going to cry, sorry.
All right.
Well you're going to cry again in a minute.
That's what I like to do.
I like to make people happy and laugh and then cry.
So I'm going to help.
My friends at Lowe's support public schools and communities
across the country with their Lowe's Gives program.
They want to use their Lowe's Heroes
to help rebuild your gym with their expertise.
This is, it really is the biggest gift we've ever given.
Today they're committing $1 million to this project.
[SCREAMING]
$1 million from Lowe's.
[SCREAMING]
We're going to see you soon.