CENTRAL TEXAS — Texans have always had a can-do spirit. That spirit led to the republic, which became this great state of ours.
That same spirit of Texas still lives in people here, as Central Texans pulled together to save their water,save their library,save their hospitaland to save their shelter for the homeless.
We took a look at how the spirit of Texas continues to connect us in four recent events, in four separate corners of Central Texas.
Carlos Webb, who simply answered the phone, now leads a group working to keep water flowing to the shrinking Coryell community of Flat.
"I had community members calling me whenever the paper had come out with the fact that the USDA was gonna foreclose on our water system," he said.
He started with his church, one of the last institutions still left through Fort Hood. He says getting the word out got results.
"It was 60 some people that showed up at the community center. Lots of people were willing to help in whatever way they needed to," said Webb.
They've begun finding solutions, and will keep the water running.
In Freestone County, people saw rural hospitals dying off and they didn't want to die off with them.
"If you lose this facility, the Freestone Medical Center, what you're going to find is we're going to lose a lot of citizens, and I don't want that for our people here in this county," said George Robinson, Chairman of the Fairfield Hospital District Board.
In Mexia, families cried after someone set fire to the town's public library.
City and library leaders pulled together quickly to rebuild and a businessman donated a vacant building to get books back into people's hands.
Already, people had declared war on poverty, with "blessing boxes" and plans for their first soup kitchen.
"That's really the spirit of our community. We have a loss, and we've had our share over the years, and each time people step up in a lot of different ways," said Butch Newhouse, Mexia city councilman.
In Killeen, when the "Friends in Crisis" homeless shelter shut down, the community said "no" and got it back open in weeks.
"Citizens have just stepped up and stepped out and they are really trying to help their community neighbors regardless of the situation right now," said Mercedes Wesley, of the "Together we are Stronger" Facebook group.
And regardless of the situation or town, the spirit that connects Central Texas shines bright when problems anywhere here, need solutions.
"I was very, very impressed and thankful that we had so many people that was concerned and were willing to participate however they could," said Webb.
