FC Dallas and the Houston Dynamo are bitter rivals on the field, but that rivalry was set aside on Saturday morning to come together for a greater cause.
Players Kyle Zobeck and Bryan Reynolds Jr. joined AJ de la Garza and Dylan Remick of the Houston Dynamo participated in a community build. Working alongside them were volunteers from SNHU, Dallas Beer Guardians and Texian Army in conjunction with St. Bernard Project to rebuild and repair a house damaged from Hurricane Harvey nearly one year ago.
“Growing up, I didn’t have everything. So now, being a professional soccer player, all I want to do is give back,” said Bryan Reynolds Jr. Reynolds and the army of volunteers were put to work in hazmat suits and brushed off the mold from the wooden frames inside the house.
“This is bigger than a rivalry. Bigger than a soccer game,” said Houston Dynamo player AJ De La Garza. “We all came together for one goal and that’s to help a mother and her son get back into their house.”
Members from Dallas Beer Guardians are no strangers to giving back, and united with Houston supporters Texian Army and 210 Alliance in collecting donations for victims of Hurricane Harvey, as well as various volunteer efforts in Dallas-Fort Worth. “To us, it’s all a continuation of our projects that we did last year,” said DBG president Bailey Brown. “We’re all Texans at the end of the day and everybody in this state was affected by it, so it was just natural to continue that when we came down this time around.”
Though there is still a lot of work to be done, the volunteers chipped away at the rehab on Deirdre Gregoire’s home. “It was great to see everyone come out. It was really a group effort,” said goalkeeper Kyle Zobeck. “We knocked out a lot in a short period of time. I think it speaks volumes to what the St. Bernard Project has done for this family.”
