CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Three gentlemen have been nominated to be KRIS 6 Angles for the month of March for their actions during the winter storms.
When they saw how bad conditions became on Padre Island during "the big freeze", Chul Kim McGuire and Paul Haynes jumped into action. It was the idea from Alex Karis that spurred teamwork to help everyone on Padre Island.
When McGuire woke up that Monday after freezing rain hit, there wasn’t a second thought. He put his abilities as a contractor to use, fixing busted pipes.
"Fix one leak, fix another leak," said McGuire. "Another one develops and it is challenging. It can get sad sometimes, but when we can be energized that we’re helping people, that’s what counts."
Haynes just started a shuttle service and immediately realized his bus didn't slide on the freezing roads. So, he put it to use delivering supplies and getting people where they needed to go.
"That's when it hit me, a lot of people are going to have problems this morning," Haynes said. "That's when I started just reading Facebook and seeing what people were posting. And it was pretty obvious then, there was a problem.
I picked up a lot of people just walking down the street. Headed to Stripes I guess, to get some coffee or warm up or whatever. So, I just pick them up and give them a ride the rest of the way."
Hanyes said his work was only possible because of Alex Karis. Almost four years ago Karis noticed how divisive and negative his community had gotten. He said that wasn't the community he knew.
"It was really about bringing all of your positivity about the island," said Karis. "What's going on that you love? Show me pictures of events."
He created a private Facebook page for Island residents to spread positivity and facts. With over 4,500 people in the group, it’s there people found who were in need.
"People were saying my power’s on," said Karis "I can bring some people over here and they were allowing people to come to their homes at different times from the heat perspective. And so Paul was involved in a little bit of that shuttling too."
They all agree though, they’re only angels because the strength of the island community.
"There's so many other people helping out I'm sure..." said McGuire. "On behalf of everyone that does the right thing helping each other, it’s all for them.
"What it means to me should mean the same thing to the rest of all the islanders that hopped on the train when we had the freeze," Haynes said. "Everybody found their little niche, where to help. And it was amazing how fast that happened."
"To take the brunt of that recognition on myself, I would only want to give it back to the people that are involved in this group and who they are as people are why I've continued," Karis said. "Because trust me it's not been easy to keep positivity in a world of negativity."
Karis only allows island residents in the group and positive posts only. The group helps neighbors to learn about neighbors and stay connected.
