Texans Football Team Honors Top Volunteer
 December 14, 2009 by: Bill Stamps The Houston Texans won Sunday, ending a four game losing streak. The team announced another honor, the winner of its community quarterback award, which recognizes a community member for outstanding work as a volunteer. Bill Stamps has more on the award and winner. listen now: If you’ve ever been to a Houston Texans Football game, you probably remember the part where the stadium announcer recognizes a member of the U.S. Army for his or her outstanding work serving our country. They call it Hometown Heroes and it usually draws a big applause. "There's strong and then there's Army strong." This past weekend the Texans honored another type of unsung hero, the community quarterback award goes to someone nominated for their work as a volunteer with United Way agencies. Texans President Jamey Rootes says there are lots of people who volunteer their time and its hard to pick just one: "A lot of great stories out there. A lot of great people doing work for Houston and Houstonians and we’re thrilled to have an opportunity to recognize them." This year’s winner is Tim Horan, a real estate lawyer who volunteers his time helping the homeless and mentally ill. The music you hear is the theme song for the Army. For volunteers, there is no theme music. Their work is often done behind the scenes unknown to the general public. Horan talks about his passion for the homeless. "Oh, I just have long felt that we need to do a better job of providing housing, especially and supportive services for persons with mental illness and homeless individuals. It’s a big unmet need in our city. You see people that lack housing and you just naturally have a compassion for it." Betsy Schwartz is President of Mental Health America of Greater Houston. She’s the one who nominated Horan. "The core of all non profits are volunteers, especially members of the board of directors. Having a volunteer like Tim who’s an attorney and very busy in his real job make extra time always to volunteer and provide leadership to a non profit organization is really the lifeblood of any non profit." Horan isn’t a big talker...at least not when there’s a microphone in front of him. But his actions speak for themselves. He’s been volunteering for more than 20 years. At Sunday’s game, they showed his face on the big screen as they announced winner. "I was very honored, humbled, surprised." Horan isn’t overseas fighting to keep us safe. He’s here in Houston fighting to give the homeless and mentally ill a better life. .png) > view printer-friendly version listen to audio: > in your media player download audio: > podcast > iTunes > direct subscribe to audio category: > latest podcast > iTunes > return to previous page |