Former Brewers star Ryan Braun praises firefighters battling Los Angeles wildfires: ‘True heroes’

Former Milwaukee Brewers star Ryan Braun has been evacuated from his California home for most of the past six weeks due to Wildfires in Los Angeles.

Brown, 41, spoke of his gratitude to firefighters as they continue to try to keep people and buildings safe.

“Firefighters and first responders are real heroes” Brown told Fox News Digital on Saturday. “I don’t think we get a chance to thank them often enough. But these guys put their lives on the line. They worked day and night. I know a number of firefighters who have literally not slept for 72 years. hours.

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“These guys are doing everything in their power to save as many people and buildings as possible. Incredibly grateful for everything they’ve done for the community, and today is an opportunity to try and say thank you to as many of them as possible.”

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Brown, along with World Series Champion Mike Moustakas, Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff, Brewers star Christian Yelich and Brewers ownership Mike Attanasio created California Strong to help communities affected by the disaster.

California Strong is a YMCA program dedicated to supporting all Californians in the aftermath of disasters.

Yelich spoke about a California community that continues to support each other through hard times.

“The community seems to step up whenever there are people in need. I remember the Woolsey fire about seven years ago and it seems to have flown by, but it’s a long recovery process. You know, it’s not something that takes a day, a week, even a year,” Yelich told Fox News Digital.

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“It’s a multi-year process, and just to help people get back on their feet here at the beginning, hopefully we can stay with them throughout the process and get them back to normal, whenever that happens.”

Moustakas talked about how California Strong was born out of Brown, Yelich, Goff and Athanasius just connecting with each other during tough times.

“It started with us checking each other out and then quickly turned into us trying to use our platforms to help those in need. And that’s one of the greatest benefits of what we’ve been able to do in baseball is use the platform for good,” Moustakas told Fox News Digital.

“We were very fortunate to have this YMCA partner with us and it started to work. And we’re here today, supporting a ton of families with a wonderful community. We are very happy to help these people.”

Brown talked about how long and difficult the recovery process will be for people and how California Strong wants to help these people.

“We live in this community. We grew up in this community. We can relate to people and what they are going through and dealing with. Like Mike (Mustaktas), I have three young children, so I always look at these situations through the lens of other parents. For many people, it’s hard to think about where they start to build their lives California Strong’s goal was to support people after natural disasters and tragedies,” Brown said.

“That’s what we’ve been trying to do for the last seven years. This is what today is about. And the goal is to be able to support people both in the near term, right now, and in the longer term as they go through what ends up being a very long and difficult process to rebuild their lives.”

California Strong is partnering with Proactive Sports to help get Californians back on their feet.

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“Proactive Sports has partnered with California Strong since the beginning,” Proactive Sports owner Emily Capretta told Fox News Digital. “We organized an event for those who were unfortunately affected by the Woolsey fire and the Borderline shooting that we experienced in our community in 2018.

“And a very smart, strong group of women that we got together to do a community Thanksgiving, and that started California Strong,

“On this particular event, that night when those who were displaced and lost their homes, I texted that original group of women that they wanted to do it again with me. And then I also wrote to Ryan Brown and said, “It’s time Mobilization should be the first point of action for those affected.

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