J.J. Watt, defensive end for the Houston Texans, just made a huge donation to help the victims of Hurricane Harvey. Watt created an online fundraiser and donated $100,000 to the cause.
The Texans played a preseason game in New Orleans on Saturday night and had to fly to Dallas to wait out the storm. Watt posted a video message on his Instagram account telling everyone in Houston to stay safe.
In his message, Watt said, “I’m sitting here watching the news and checking the internet and seeing everything that’s going on with Hurricane Harvey and the damage it’s causing back home. It’s very difficult. It’s very difficult not only because we have family and friends back there, some guys have young kids, some guys have wives and families.”
After people donated $200,000 within two hours, Watt decided to raise the goal to $500,000. Watt tweeted this message on Sunday.
The initial 200k was raised in less than 2 hours.
I have now raised the goal to 500k.
Your support is phenomenal!https://t.co/SR6DmnNbyM— JJ Watt (@JJWatt) August 28, 2017
Watt also tweeted that so many people were on the site trying to donate that it crashed, but they got it back up and running for everyone to start donating again.