Kurt Warner came home to Cedar Rapids today and took a tour of my city of ruins. He brought a pen, but forgot his checkbook. He signed autographs, posed for photos, handed out Cardinals t-shirts (no, not those Cardinals), and shook hands.
Whatta guy!
My favorite local sports writer -- and one of the smartest people I know -- let him off the hook, I thought, describing the visit as "an attempt to keep the effects of the flood in the public's consciousness."
Baloney! We're not even a month out.
“I think there’s always the initial push by people to help out, whether it be corporations or individuals,” Warner said. “But it becomes out of sight, out of mind.
You forget about how long it’s going to take these families or this community to rebuild. Once it’s not a headline or a breaking story it gets pushed in the background.”
Does Warner come from the future or something? Perhaps he returned sooner than planned. I'm baffled.
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Hometown Zero
Posted by Lonnie at 10:38 PM
Labels: flood, Iowa, NFL, shit that pisses me off | Add to Del.icio.us
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Rams Super Bowl quarterback Kurt Warner was back in St. Louis, Saturday, launching an all out "blitz" to help flood victims; asking for help big and small.
His Rams days long gone and there was Warner signing autographs at West County Mall in Des Peres until there were no more to sign.
"There you go," Warner smiled, handing off a freshly signed football to Kyle and Colin Moran of South County.
The boys sort of symbolized what Warner was doing there.
They ran into their neighbor, Lisa Sinak, at the event.
Sinak's mother lives in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the same flood ravaged city where Warner grew up; where Warner's and Sinak's mothers both became flood victims.
"This is my sister, she lives next to your mom," Sinak told Warner.
"Oh do you?" Warner asked. "Small world."
Warner's mother owns a carpet store that was flooded.
"They're rebuilding," Warner said. "Like most places they had to gut it then rebuild everything from the inside out."
Sinak said her mother lost her house.
"She had about 5 and ½ feet of water in her house. She had about 2 and ½ hours to get everything out of her house. We figure she saved about 10% of her belongings. That's it. That's all she has," Sinak said.
Just about everyone paying the $50 donation for an autograph knew someone hurting from the floods in Missouri, Illinois and Iowa.
"I'm trying to get as many partners as I can, whether it be people coming out to get an autograph or whether it be corporations who say hey, we want to join hands and we want to make a difference," Warner said.
"He's the best," Sinak said. "He'll do it if he can get it done. He's from our home town and he continues to help us."
Warner fan Holly Markus came. Her aunt suffered heavy losses in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
"I think [Warner's] just an awesome person," she said. ?"He's such a good person to just try and take care of other people; to have him here is just great."
Warner said he planned to write NFL owners asking them to match the money raised by his foundation for flood relief.
"No question, this is just a start," he said.
With a line close to 100 deep for a man who last played here in '03, a pretty good start indeed.
To make a donation or find out more about Warner's flood relief effort go to the Warner Foundation web site, kurtwarner.org.
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