Joseph Annan Jr (Basketball, Indiana University Kokomo) grew up in Indianapolis. HelloNation asks student athletes one question about the place that raised them and records the answer on camera. This is Joseph Annan Jr’s, in full.
The question
Tell a story about a moment when your hometown came together or achieved something that made you proud.
The answer, as recorded
Transcript. What follows is a transcript of the video above, in Joseph Annan Jr’s own words. It has not been rewritten, and no part of it was drafted for them.
A moment where my hometown came together was when a huge house fire broke out within a neighborhood near me. Not just one house, but three of them burned. You could see the smoke rising fast and families were outside trying to figure out what they still had left. What made me proud wasn't the fire trucks, it was the neighborhood. People came out immediately to check on the families, making sure every kid and every adult was safe. Some were helping look through what was left, trying to find anything that might have survived. A phone, a wallet, a pair of shoes, anything. Others were bringing water, snacks, blankets, whatever they had. A few people offered rides or a place to sit and calm down. And the whole time, neighbors were calling around, trying to help the families find somewhere to stay so they could get to a relative's house or a temporary spot. It wasn't organized, it wasn't perfect, but it was real. A whole place, neighborhoods, stepping up in a broad daylight when people needed it.
Recorded by HelloNation as part of its athlete voices program and published by Hello Newswire, HelloNation’s good news newswire. The words are the speaker’s own.
Reported by Hello Newswire.