At about 1 p.m. June 29, the line of cars on West Oklahoma Avenue outside Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church wrapped around the block to 43rd Street, two blocks away. A garage was filled to the brim with boxes. In the basement of the church was organized chaos of sorting good and packing piles of goods.
By the looks of it, Milwaukee Brewers Jackson Chourio and William Contreras achieved their goal of trying to do good for their home country of Venezuela – and then some.
“We expected something good but it ended great,” Chourio said after the first day of the drive he and Contreras helped organize to benefit Venezuela after record-breaking earthquakes left devastation last week. “A lot of people showed up with boxes and boxes and boxes. Teammates showing up and helping, fans showing up willing to help, it was beautiful.”
Chourio and Contreras, playing with heavy hearts while not able to be physically present in their home country in the aftermath of the earthquakes, are collecting non-perishable goods from meals to hygiene products to emergency supplies along with coach and fellow Venezuelan Nestor Corredor.
“It’s a hard feeling,” Chourio said. “I don’t want to put myself in the shoes of other people who lost family, who lost everything they have over there, but whatever the country is going through is unexpected and devastating at the same time. I would love to be there to help the people, but I have a job to do. But for those people I want everyone to know we’re doing the best we can to help, some way somehow.”
Supplies are being accepted from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. until July 2 at Blessed Sacrament, 3100 S. 41st St.
It will be tough to match the output from Day 1, which saw Chourio, Contreras and Corredor and about a dozen teammates come to the church to drop items off as well as help to sort and pack.
When the three Venezuelans addressed the crowd and cameras in the center of the basement, Dominican native Abner Uribe was right next to them holding a Venezuelan flag while Christian Yelich, Trevor Megill and Jared Koenig stood behind.
“It’s meaningful when you have players with depth,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “It’s meaningful when you know you have players who have income and know it’s about others. Even with all your income, it’s about others. It does your heart good.”
It has been an emotional week both on the field and off for Contreras and Chourio, who both homered over the weekend as they play with their country on their hearts.
“They were heroes three months ago. They were part of that team that gave the championship in the [World Baseball Classic] and the country was happy,” Corredor said. “We’re dealing with this situation now, and the way [Chourio] handled it, the way William handled it, promoting, looking for help. We all watched a couple days ago when William hit the home run, how emotional it was. When [Chourio] hit the home run, how emotional it was.
“People asked me, I said, ‘You’re doing it for 30 million people.’ You’re not doing it for another stat for Jackson Chourio. He was thinking about Venezuela and trying to represent Venezuela the best way they can. That showed me we have a really good, special kid on our team and hopefully we can see this for the rest of his career.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: ‘It was beautiful’: Brewers fans flock to support Contreras’, Chourio’s drive
Reporting by Curt Hogg, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Curt Hogg, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | USA TODAY Network
