Bruce Smith offers eloquent support as Bills, Sabres, Pegulas hand out groceries

“Like the rest of the community, I’m just devastated,” the Buffalo Bills Hall of Famer said upon visiting the grocery store. “It feels as though someone has just ripped the insides out of me. Hurts. Hurts to see the pain and the suffering that has taken place as a result of this evil act. Robbing innocent pillars in the community of their loved ones all because of the color of their skin. It’s just unimaginable and just devastating.”

The emotion in Smith’s voice was palpable. Smith joined fellow Hall of Famers Jim Kelly and Thurman Thomas, along with other Bills and Sabres alumni, owners Terry and Kim Pegula and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in handing out groceries on East Ferry Street, at the Resource Council of Western New York.

All of them tried to console residents who streamed into a tent in a parking lot to pick up necessities made available due to the fact the Tops market is temporarily closed.

The 58-year-old Smith, who flew in from his Virginia home, was especially eloquent about the need to strive for healing.

“It’s one thing to see a horrific event like this take place and you don’t have any attachment to it,” he said. “But this is in our front yard. This affects people that you’ve grown up with and you’ve known for 30 years or more, and that’s where it hurts the most. It feels like somebody just ripped the insides out of you, and it hurts so bad. But we will, we will, make this community stronger, hopefully put some more smiles on these folks’ faces and spend some time with them and let them know that we love them.”

“To be here today passing out food with my brother Thurman and Jim and the Pegulas and Roger and so many others and then seeing the community,” Smith said, “I bet you this racist did not count on this outpouring of love that’s taking place right now.”

The Resource Council of WNY is a community services organization that provides everything from after-school programs to learn to swim programs, adult education classes, youth athletics programs and many other services to help the community.

Tops Friendly Markets, Wegmans, FeedMore WNY and many other businesses and individuals have been dropping off groceries and household staples for distribution.

Keri Socker, chief of staff for the Resource Council, said the tragedy was felt even harder because of the fact the Tops Friendly Markets is the lone major market in the community.

“This community doesn’t have anything else,” she said. “We’ve served 2,500 people in three days, not counting today. It’ll probably be 3,600 by the end of today.”

“We had to be physically here to see it, and it hit you really hard, seeing those names and the location,” Kim Pegula said. “There’s a lot of things going through your mind. I think it was important for us to try to help absorb some of the pain.”

“I am so proud of Buffalo for the reaction, starting with the initial press conference, with the mayor, the Catholic priest and Darius Pridgen,” Terry Pegula said, referring to the Common Council President. “It was all about prayer and love. I was sitting in Florida and had a tear in my eye to see how we started down the path of recovery with prayer. Let’s pull together and come out of this together.”

The Buffalo Bills Foundation and the NFL Foundation announced Wednesday that each would donate $200,000 each to support the community. Half will go to the Buffalo Together Community Response Fund, which will address immediate and long-term needs in the Buffalo community, including systemic issues that have marginalized communities of color. The other half will go to various nonprofits working on the emergency response efforts.

“We’ve had a lot of conversations, especially with residents in the community a few minutes ago, and that was one thing that really resounded with them is what happens after the cameras leave?” Kim Pegula said. “What happens when it’s not the top news story of the week? I said this is where we want to listen to them and understand what the true needs are, with the goal in mind of sustainability. How do we improve upon what’s been done, how do we prevent things like this, how do we change a behavior and a mind but in a way that really lasts and is meaningful? I don’t have the answer. I just know that we as an organization, us personally, that we’re going to listen and have a lot of discussions with our community leaders, with the residents, with our own internal staff, our players, to truly understand and put together a plan to last.”

Said Smith: “There are some other issues that need to be addressed regarding social media and hate and white supremacy and so forth, but right now we’ve got to heal this community so we can move forward and then we can tackle these greater issues that affect all of us.”

“We need to find a way,” Smith said later, “to hold these social media platforms accountable,” referring to social media platforms that foment racist hate.

Terrence McGee, Ed Rutkowski, John Corto were among the other ex-Bills handing out groceries. The Sabres were represented by Rick Jeanneret, and former players Marty Biron, Rob Ray, Tony McKegney and Patrick Kaleta, among others.

Kelly said he was proud to see virtually the entire Bills current roster turn out on Wednesday to pay their respects at the grocery store.

“We realize, especially the players that played back in the olden days, that this is our city too, and players nowadays have been rallying since Day One,” Kelly said. “Josh and the guys who have been here, I’m proud of them. That’s who we are, that’s what this city is all about. When you talk about Bills Mafia, here we are. We’re all part of it.”

Said Smith: “I had to come and pay my respects, No. 1 to the victims of this, this horrific rampage of killing innocent African Americans just going to the grocery store. No. 2, to show support for this community. This community is here for me. Some of my best friends, I feel like their brothers, police officers, state troopers. ... I was just compelled to go to the memorial site and I cried like a baby. I wept. But it was good. I needed to have that moment so I could start this healing process.”