St. Mary's School holds tornado benefit

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - Much of midtown Mobile lays ravaged by the Christmas tornado.

But the sound of music and the aroma of a fish fry pierced through the darkness on Friday night as neighbors raised money to help some of their own.

News travels fast.

"Kinda word of mouth, how quick this thing exploded through Facebook, twitter,” said visitor Matt Quinn.

A neighborhood was knocked down.

"We are dumbfounded, but amazed no one was seriously injured,” said midtown Mobile resident Sara Pritchard.

So neighbors stepped up at the ‘Hope Rising’ benefit at St. Mary’s School.

"The whole idea is that hope is in the community and hope is in Christ and that's why we're here," said Dan Johnson with the Archdiocese of Mobile.

Everything including the food, bounce house, music was donated. And the money given will go to those who need it.

Proceeds from Friday’s benefit will be distributed through Catholic Social Services and the Red Cross.

"We are a community, it's so important to help one another,” said Pritchard.

Midtown is a unique community in Mobile.

Pritchard said, "Everyone knows everybody and we love it."

And when friends step up in a crisis, you learn how valuable those friends really are.

Visitor Paul Taylor said, "Everybody has problems, if we can take a little bit of that problem away from somebody, we make their day, we make their week, we make their year maybe.”

In the worst of times you can find the best in people.