SAN ANTONIO, Texas - The pianos and food are enough to get people at the San Antonio Professional Firefighters Banquel Hall in a good mood. But people here were smiling Friday because all of it was for a good cause. It's the annual "Pianos and Pints" - the big fundraiser for the Texas Burn Survivor Society.
"Texas Burn Survivor Society has been in existence since the '60s, helping burn survivors recover and doing burn education around the city of San Antonio," said Kortnee McDowell of the Texas Burn Survivor Society.
The work people like Kortnee do lets people like Jaclyn White live better lives. "My mom and I were burned in a propane explosion when I was only two and a half years old," White said.
Whie suffered sever burns to nearly half of her body. But with the help of the society, she thrived.
"It helped extremely. I don't know how I would be now without TBSS. I think I would be an extremely different person," White said.
The organization formed in 1962 after one of the founders was critically burned in a military helicopter crash. David Jayne spent three years going through treatment and saw so many struggling financially to get through an emotional recovery.
"People don't realize that the number one injury in children in San Antonio is burns," McDowell said.
The ticket sales and silent auction bids go to programs for wounded warriors who are transitioning to life back home and to pay for Camp David, where the youngest burn survivors can feel like kids again.
"It's just the community I think. You're with other people that know what you're gone through. You don't even talk about it. You just are free and you have fun and that's just the most important thing - having that community," White said.