Kerrville Fire Department paramedic Michelle Prescott was overcome with emotion when the Spurs first approached her after the devastating July 4, 2025, floods that struck several Central Texas counties.
"I remember them asking me what I needed," she said. "At that point, I hadn't processed everything. I didn't know what we needed. I actually just started crying, and I couldn't even talk."
The Spurs' patient, tender response and their efforts that followed helped comfort Prescott and many others in her struggling community.
"They said that I didn't need all the answers and that they weren't going anywhere," she said. "They were still going to be there. And it's incredible that almost two years after the flood, they're still here, still with us and have not left our side yet."
The Spurs' commitment to foster healing was evident Friday on the defending Western Conference champions' Sport for Healing Night at the Frost Bank Center. The club distributed nearly 1,000 tickets to community members and first responders from areas affected by recent tragedies, including the 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, the Central Texas floods, and the storms that plagued San Antonio in August.
Before watching the Spurs thrash the Sacramento Kings 126-97 in the preseason finale behind 19 points from Dylan Harper, the team's guests enjoyed a dinner at the arena's Agave Club after they met with Spurs coach Mitch Johnson, who said he was "honored" to "share some space" with the first responders.
"They are a big part of the backbone of our community," Johnson said. "When we have our biggest times of need, they are the first people there to try to help us get through them. And so when you talk about acknowledgement and honoring, there's not enough we can do."
Prescott coordinated the family reunification line at Kerr County's Emergency Operations Center after the flooding along the Guadalupe River that killed 139 people. There were 119 deaths in Kerr County alone, including 25 campers and two teenage counselors at Camp Mystic.
"It was devastating," said Prescott, a 15-year veteran paramedic who received the 2025-26 San Antonio Spurs Leaders and Legacy Award for her "dedication, compassion, and leadership" during the disaster.
"In the Emergency Operations Center, Michelle helped coordinate the reunification line for families desperately searching for loved ones, while also supporting her department, the city and international response agencies," Kerrville Fire Chief Eric Maloney said at a November 2025 meeting of the Kerrville City Council, per the Hill Country Community Journal. "Her compassion and empathy helped guide the community through one of its darkest moments."
Patricia Mejia, Spurs Sports & Entertainment's Chief Impact & Inclusion Officer, said the Spurs were eager to use their "incredible platform" to honor and support the communities harmed by the tragedies and the first responders like Prescott that came to their aid.
"There's not one thing that's as unifying as sports," Mejia said. "And so we want to make sure we use it as often as we can to let people come together and thank them for what they do every day and let them just kind of get off the clock for a little bit and come and have some fun.
"We believe they are champions for our communities. They want to come and watch us build a championship team."
The Spurs have been helping Uvalde ever since an 18-year-old former student fatally shot 19 students and two teachers while injuring 18 others at Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022. For their efforts, including donating $100,000 to support Uvalde's healing and recovery, the Spurs were honored as ESPN's 2023 Sports Humanitarian Team of the Year.
After the Hill Country flooding, the Spurs teamed with the NBA, the National Basketball Players Association, the Dallas Mavericks and the Houston Rockets to provide more than $2 million to support immediate and long-term relief to those most impacted.
When San Antonio's economically depressed West Side was hit hard by storms in August that disrupted power to 230,000 area homes and businesses and resulted in the death of two people, employees from SS&E participated in clean-up efforts.
"That's who we are," Mejia said. "We just want to make sure we're showing up because the pain doesn't go away. Maybe the news and headlines are gone or even homes are rebuilt, but it doesn't necessarily mean the pain is gone. And so we just want to keep supporting them and walking alongside of them."
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There’s more to San Antonio with the Express-News. Subscribe today for just 25¢.This article originally published at Spurs host first responders, community members from devastated communities.