UVALDE, Texas — A grieving community in Uvalde welcomed events from the Houston Astros Friday morning. The foundation set up outside of H-E-B giving away ice cream and other promotional items to families. Memorial Park in Uvalde was even more packed with families enjoying a baseball game with the Astros Youth Academy players.
“I think it helps to see the support, it’s helping us for the community to grieve with our children, with our families, with those families involved,” said Macy Briones, a mom of three young girls in Uvalde. Briones said she brought her kids to help uplift them and bring them some happiness.
For Uvalde Little League President JJ Suarez, Friday’s events with the Astros were “a real blessing for our community.” Weeks after hosting their own tournaments in honor of the 21 lives lost, Suarez hopes every game moving is played with the Uvalde community at heart.
“It’s been a lot of prayer, a lot prayer’s been going on,” he said. “It’s good to see them coming out here."
Owner and Chairman of the Houston Astros, Jim Crane, privately met with Uvalde families Friday.
“We just felt this was something we needed to do to put a little smile on everybody’s face, our players are heroes and they’ll get to see their heroes,” Crane said.
Some Uvalde families are expected to travel to Houston in August to meet the major league Astros players and spend the day with them on their home field. “All the guys will lean in and it should be a fun day for them,” Crane added.