The owner of a chain of furniture stores in Texas paid for 110 combat veterans to attend Game 1 of the World Series between the Houston Astros and the Washington Nationals.
Jim McIngvale, who owns Gallery Furniture and is known as “Mattress Mack,” treated the combat veterans, their families, and staff from Camp Hope to the big game, which was played in Houston on Tuesday night.
Camp Hope is a Houston-based program run by the PTSD Foundation of America that provides veterans suffering from trauma and their immediate families interim housing and support.
Prior to the faceoff, Army veteran Ronnie Bennett told Fox 5 that those at Camp Hope were very excited to attend the opening game.
“The energy here today has been crazy,” Bennett said. “This is a big boost. This is about as big as it gets.”
Mack said it was a pleasure to send the veterans to the game. The cheapest individual seat ticket to game one was $356, meaning McIngvale likely spent well over $35,000 taking the veterans to the game.
“We’re thrilled to send these people, these veterans, these warriors who have sacrificed so much for us to this great World Series game to see our Houston Astros,” Mack said.
PTSD Foundation of America director David Maulsby said that for the veterans suffering, the game was “a chance to get away and just do something fun.”
“For a lot of our guys, it’ll be their very first baseball game they’ve been to, and due to the generosity of a tremendous legend here in Houston,” Maulsby said.
In addition to the baseball game, McIngvale bought the veterans dinner at Pappas BBQ prior to the first pitch.
“I never served, but I’ve seen the trauma that these guys have been through,” Mack said. “Camp Hope is one of many places in Houston that takes care of our veterans with PTSD, and it just gives all of us at Gallery Furniture great joy to help these veterans who have done so much while I did so little.”
Beyond buying tickets for the members of Camp Hope, he wagered $8.25 million on the Astros beating the Washington Nationals in the World Series. The Nationals beat the Astros in Game 1 with a score of 5-4.
