Mariners rookie and fiancee host fundraiser for Hurricane Helene victims

SEATTLE— The Mariners are stepping up to help those affected by a horrible circumstance in every way.

Last week we told you about the star hunter. Cal Raleigh’s efforts to raise funds for Hurricane Helene.

That effort, the Mariners tell us, has garnered $10,000 in donations from Washington state alone to the North Carolina Community Foundation. But the area of ​​devastation is enormous in an area ill-equipped to deal with the rare catastrophic effects of hurricanes this far inland.

And it’s affecting the family of another Mariners star. Rookie infielder Ryan Bliss just got engaged to his longtime girlfriend Katelynn Hadjopoulos, a native of Greeneville, Tennessee.

The couple met when Ryan was playing baseball at Auburn and Katelynn was in school at the University of Tennessee. The ties with that region are deep for this couple. So, with Greeneville, a rural farming community devastated by Hurricane Helene, Ryan and Katelynn sprang into action.

“It’s just that shock,” Katelynn said.

“You see people who just don’t know where to start. And I think that’s the hardest thing, because my hometown is very small, we are very friendly to agriculture. And that’s why we live off our farmland. That’s how most from our hometown people get their income, so the farms no longer exist. There are no cows, there is not even farmland. Nowadays it is the most difficult things, to be able to sit there and see, that is where. “I grew up and just seeing everything happen like this, and a lot of people don’t have flood insurance, so that’s another thing where it’s really devastating. “Right now I see people are really homeless,” he added.

For that effort, the couple created a GoFundMe page with a goal of $10,000, just trying to help in any way possible.Donations and, of course, messages of support from Mariners fans are pouring in.

“It’s very important to us,” Bliss told me. “Just the constant support, not just because they are Seattle Mariners fans, but just because they have a heart. I think that’s something we can say, that we love Seattle. Since we got there, we see how the fans treat the players we see that they really love their sports, and to not only support them, like I said, on the field, but also off the field, and support that what matters to us is very important to us. And we can’t thank them enough for helping us. “.

As news coverage fades in the days and weeks following the hurricane’s destruction, work for residents in needy areas remains an absolute struggle. Make efforts like Ryan and Katelynn’s that much more important.

“I think they got running water about a week ago, but they didn’t have it for two and a half, three weeks,” Bliss says. They were teaching the townspeople how to boil it, and you put it in the toilet, get it. “They were teaching people how to survive,” Bliss said.

“They were just stuck there. The only way to get to people is by air travel,” Katelynn said of residents stuck in mountainous areas.

It was a horrible situation, but a shred of positivity came out of it. These Mariners players, whether it’s Raleigh or Bliss and his family, show us that sports “heroes” are one thing, but helping people in the real world, using that baseball platform like that? That’s all.

“I think that’s all we do it for. Really, we do it for the love of the game, but we also do it to give back and use our platform to help others.”

Well said, Happiness.

You can see more of what the couple has to say in thisvideo.