Girl Scout lends helping hand to storm survivors

HOUSTON – “You could see the water seeping through so I was, like, 'Oh, time to pack,’” Ashlei Gill said.

It was 8 p.m., and Ashlei and her kids were in their first-floor apartment in Deseo at Grand Mission.

The floodwaters of Hurricane Harvey were on the rise. She told her 9-year-old, Kailei McGowan, they were leaving and to pick her favorite thing to take with her. That ended up being her Girl Scout vest.

“It was more important than toys," Kailei said.

After spending the night with their second-floor neighbors, the family was rescued by boat.

“We came out and the water was up to here on me,” Gill said, holding her hand at her belly button.

“I saw the boat and I was, like ... 'No, I can’t do this,'” Kailei said.

“They took us out and around through the front entrance. We hit a couple of bushes because they couldn’t see them the water was so high,” Gill said.

They ended up at Marshall High School in Missouri City. That's when Kailei put her vest to work.

“I was, like, ‘Kailei don’t you want to just sit back and relax? This is your time to calm down,’ she was, like, ‘I want to help, please, please,’” Gill said.

“I gave people out clothes, clothes, food, deodorant, like healthy stuff," Kailei said.

“She’d literally lost all of her toys and shoes and it was just so nice to see her have such a big heart still,” said Kailei's Girl Scout Troop 150061 leader, Ashley Kanatzar-Fuller.

“(Were you wearing your vest during this?) Yes I sure was! (Why’s that?) Because I wanted to show people that I’m a Girl Scout and I’m doing the Girl Scout way,” Kailei told KPRC reporter Chip Brewster.

“Every journey or badge work that they’ll do, at the end of it will be a take action project where they need to find and identify a problem within the community and solve it,” Gill said.

As it turns out, volunteering during the five days they were at Marshall helped Kailei as well.

“That was her solace while we were there. She’d forgot about everything that she’d lost,” Gill said.

Kailei and her family are still in a hotel right now; however, they should be moving into their new permanent home this Saturday.

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