SA author Shea Serrano helps pay bills for those struggling amid coronavirus pandemic; Gets shout out from Obama

SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio best-selling author and journalist Shea Serrano has stepped up to helped some of the people most affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

For the past week or so, Shea has been helping pay bills for people that have been laid off or facing similar hardships.

This began last Thursday when Serrano took to Twitter and started a “kindness thread,” offering to provide some financial relief to those who are struggling.

“If you’ve been hit & need a little help, then drop your Venmo/CashApp/PayPal below. If you’ve been lucky enough to not have your work life affected & wanna help out, then grab someone from here," Serrano’s Tweet read, in part.

Many of Serrano’s 345,000 dedicated followers followed suit and started to send each other funds.

KSAT reached out to Serrano last Friday and asked what prompted him to begin fund-raising through social media. “Everything felt shitty and we wanted it to feel not that way for a bit,” Serrano said.

By Sunday night, Serrano had raised $10,000 to send directly to people who posted or messaged him screenshots of past due bills.

The fund-raising has continued through the week as more restrictions have been placed on restaurants and non-essential businesses.

Serrano was profiled in the New York Times and told the publication in an interview, “I’m acutely aware what it means if someone loses even one shift," Serrano said. "If you’re making $7 an hour and you’re not going to get $56, that screws up a lot of stuff.”

On Thursday, former President Barack Obama praised Serrano on Twitter for his fund-raising efforts on social media.

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