200K Sign Petition To Honour Mattress King Who Sheltered Harvey Victims

Out of all the devastating stories coming out of the United States this week, here’s a nice one to warm your cold dead heart.

Almost 200,000 people have signed a petition to honour a Texan business owner after he sheltered hundreds of people during Hurricane Harvey.

Mattress Mack‘, otherwise known as Jim McIngvale, opened his two Gallery Furniture showrooms to house hundreds of people displaced during the monster storm.

“I decided we’d open the store and make it a shelter for all the people who were disaffected,” he told ABC News (the American one, not the ABC here). “We have these giant 24-foot box trucks that can get through 5 to 6 feet of water. We sent ’em out, picked up about 200 people. They were stranded on bridges, they were stranded in convenience stores, they were walking through the water with snakes and alligators, and we brought ’em out here.”

People slept on mattresses, on show beds or camped out in show living rooms. It even became a makeshift crash pad for members of the National Guard deployed to the area.

“We said to hell with profits, let’s take care of the people, that’s just the right thing to do. It’s the way I was brought up,” said Mack.

“Furniture’s made to be sat on, slept on, whatever. Use the product, it ain’t gonna hurt it.”

Now almost 200,000 people have signed a Change.org petition to officially declare August 26 ‘Mattress Mack Day‘ in Houston.

“It’s time, Houston it’s time, that Mattress Mack deserves his own Houston’s day/key to the city. During Hurricane Harvey he turned the key to his locations and opened them up as Shelters. This man is a Houston icon that deserves to be remembered forever. Signing this petition will help us get what he deserves August 26 is to be declared as Mattress Mack Day in Houston.”

Mack said he’s still hoping to sell the furniture once it’s no longer needed to house Harvey victims.

“We’ll have a Harvey floor model sale or something,” he said. “I’ll come up with some schtick.”

<3 <3 <3

Watch the full piece below.

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