SUGAR LAND, TX - Sugar Land has its share of Hometown Heroes... and one of them manages a Pizza Hut. She set out to feed hungry residents during Hurricane Harvey... all while five months pregnant!
Shayda Willison is the General Manager of this Pizza Hut on West Airport in Sugar Land. A lot has happened since Hurricane Harvey, including the birth of her son, but days after the storm, she was a pregnant woman on a serious mission to help others...
"My husband and I came up here - I live 10 minutes down the road and it took me almost an hour to get here. We took back roads - got here and then we had power - some leaks inside - cleaned it up - I couldn't get 75% of my crew here, they were trapped," Shayda said.
That's when she called-in family, friends, and the employees who could safely get here, to start making pizzas to feed tired, hungry, flooded-out residents of Sugar Land. The challenge was *delivering* warm pizza with streets looking more like canals.
"My husband got a kayak for his birthday, so we said - let's utilize it! We've got power in the store, we can make food, so that's what we did! Another driver brought his kayak up here and we made more than 100 pizzas. We made different trips, because we could only fit about 30 on the kayak at a time without it tipping over," Shayda said.
The kayaks were usually too full of pizza to fit people... so the small crew put on waders, heavy boots, and handed out free pizzas to those in need of a warm meal...
"They were so grateful, grateful, happy, their face is what gives me goose bumps - bet they were very happy. I'm sure they call Pizza Hut more now! I bet they do - after that - we had people calling up here thanking us," Shayda added.
The gratitude reached far outside of Sugar Land. "I had people calling from all over the world - Africa, El Salvador, everywhere, they wanted to buy those pizzas that we were giving it for free. It felt great - it really did!"
Shayda says her husband was protective of her in her delicate pregnant state and made sure she protected herself from dangerous flood waters.