Helping hands extend from Southport, Indiana, to Baytown

Southport Police Department Chief Tom Vaughn and his wife, Jane

Starting with a simple social media connection, two communities in pain joined forces to help hundreds of families impacted by Hurricane Harvey.

“About seven years ago, I became Facebook friends with a lady named Angie in Indiana through one of the FarmVille games, believe it or not. We kept in touch and always joked around about politics and different things,” Jerry Cates said.

“She’s very much involved with the Southport, Indiana, Police Department, and does a lot of volunteer work. That’s how I learned that they were looking to help out somewhere down here after the hurricane.”

As Baytown and surrounding communities were dealing with the aftermath of Harvey, Southport — a town of about 2,500 just outside Indianapolis — was still coming to grips with a recent tragedy.

Lt. Aaron Allan of the city’s police department was killed on July 27 while trying to help at the scene of a car accident.

Lt. Aaron Allan

“He went to a car that was inverted in a crash. After he climbed in to help, the guy pulled a gun and shot him 12 times. It took Aaron’s life,” said Tom Vaughn, Southport police chief.

“Our community came out and overwhelmed us with food, gifts and memorials. Anything we needed, the people from our town were there. So when the hurricane happened down here, we were trying to find some way to give back to a community that was devastated like we were. We reached out to the same people who were really good to us, and they said, ‘Oh, we’d love to do that.’ They filled our whole garage with stuff.”

Cates, who works at Bay Area Rehabilitation Center in Baytown, got the OK to make BARC the distribution point for a truckload of supplies that arrived on Sept. 8.

“We didn’t really think about it. We worked all day, and then we just jumped in our vehicles and drove straight through,” said Vaughn, who was joined by his wife, Jane, and several officers in making the 1,046-mile trip that took more than 15 hours.

Opportunity Center clients, BARC staff and volunteers were busy throughout the day. First, they handed out cleaning supplies donated by ExxonMobil. Then, after the Southport team arrived early afternoon and they helped unload the truck, they distributed water and a range of household items to more than 200 carloads of families.

Jerry Cates (right) joins others to help unload the truck.

All of the supplies were stacked in a building that is normally used for job training for adults with disabilities in the Opportunity Center program. Among other things, they construct industrial-strength pallets that are sold to ExxonMobil.

While Cates made the initial connection that got the ball rolling, “this was really a collaborative effort between Southport Police Department and Baytown PD for our community. They communicated a lot in the background. We were just glad to assist in making it possible,” he said.

Special items that made the long trip were three big bags of stuffed bears that were donated in Allan’s memory. He had earned the nickname Teddy Bear for going out of his way to help local families.

Vaughn recalled how Allan, 38, had met a family whose car wouldn’t start. The husband had been diagnosed with a brain tumor, the wife wasn't working while she cared for him, and they had a 3-year-old daughter.

Allan went to an auto parts store and bought them a new car battery using his own money. Then he asked the chief whether the department could further help the family.

The police department threw the little girl a party at Chuck E. Cheese’s, with pizza and tokens, and police cruisers filled with toys.

Teddy bears were handed out to honor the fallen officer.

“You’re just a big teddy bear,” Vaughn’s wife said to Allan. And the nickname stuck.

Allan’s wife asked that the teddy bears be handed out to children in need. “So we thought, there’s no better opportunity to give away a bunch of them than right here,” Vaughn said.

After grabbing something to eat and resting for a couple hours, the Southport crew jumped back in their vehicles to make the return trip home.

“We need to get back for a fundraiser,” Vaughn said. “It’s for Aaron’s wife and kids.”

View the “end of watch” call for Southport Police Department Lt. Aaron Allan.