For some Greenway Middle School students, a trip to the movies had never happened, until a Phoenix school resource officer stepped in and paid for the whole thing.
Officer Sean Reavie rented all 144 seats at Harkins Scottsdale on Wednesday so seventh and eighth graders in the school’s “After the Bell” summer program could see “Toy Story 5,” with popcorn, candy and drinks included. For several students, it was their first time inside a movie theater.
The end-of-summer field trip was nearly cancelled after funding fell through, leaving program coordinator Katie Jenkins without options. She turned to Reavie.
“She told me how much she needed, and I gave it to them so they could go,” Reavie said.
Reavie said the theater rental cost was under $2,000.
“If they needed more, I would have given them more,” he said. “You can’t break a promise to a child. They come here knowing that there’s a reward at the end.”
Greenway is a Title I school in Phoenix, which means most of its families qualify as low-income. Assistant principal Stacy Alejo said many students receive free breakfast and lunch daily.
“These opportunities are super important for us,” Alejo said.
Reavie, a 20-year law enforcement veteran, said many of his students deal with circumstances most people do not see.
“Some of them live in a different life than most of us would comprehend, and they just haven’t seen a lot of good things with their own eyes,” he said. “Their family doesn’t have a car. Parents, if they have two, work multiple jobs. Half of them have never been to a water park before. They’ve never been across the other side of the highway before.”
Reavie has paid for trips before. Last year, he spent more than $3,000 to take students to Hurricane Harbor.
He also founded Put On The Cape, a children’s charity now in its 12th year, after spending six years as a child crimes detective.
“It dawned on me that little kids who were scared responded to superheroes,” he said. “So I started a superhero-based foundation called Put On The Cape: A Foundation For Hope.”
The organization supports child advocacy centers and teen youth programs.
Before the movie started on Wednesday, Reavie made one request of the students.
“As you get older in life, help other people, as a payback to me,” he told them. “Would you do that? That’s all I ask of you.”
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