VIDEO: Kids Get Shopping Spree Before Store Opens

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI News) – The new Academy Sports and Outdoors store in Starkville is getting ready to open for business, but first a group of lucky kids a sneak preview and a shopping spree.

It’s the shopping spree that kids dream of.

Thirty kids from the local Boys and Girls Club were selected to shop at the brand new Academy Sports in Starkville, each getting a one hundred dollar gift card to do whatever they want with in the store.

“I’m excited that we get to… we were grateful enough just to be able to come here and be able to get one hundred to spend on what you like or what you want,” said shopper Kaileigh Smith.

Many of the kids, after getting there, were anxious to get inside and put their gift card to good use.

“I feel a little rushed, a little tingly,” said one of the lucky shoppers, Ashton Smith.

It’s part of the Give Back program for Academy Sports, where management selects a group of kids from the community and gives them a VIP experience just before the store opens.

“Every evening before we do a grand opening, Academy reaches out to the community and does a give back event, and we want to just bring in and embrace and say ‘Hey! Welcome to Academy!’ We allow them to come in, and we give them a one hundred dollar gift card and just let them go shopping and let them know that Academy Sports is in town and here to support the community,” said Regional VP of Academy, Charles Delgado.

Events like this don’t come around very often, so the kids took full advantage of this experience.

“We normally don;t get this opportunity, so it’s pretty… it’s pretty… I don’t know how to put it, but it’s awesome. It’s great,” said Ashton Smith.

This is something that Academy has been doing for a while, and the reactions from the kids affect all of those who are involved.

“I think I get more excited than they do, as I sat back there. You see them run through and everybody screaming, I get truly excited. I mean, I grew up in Boys and Girls clubs myself, so seeing this and seeing the excitement on their faces it’s a tremendous lift for myself as well as the team here that works inside this store.”

It was an exchange of welcomes.

Academy welcomes the kids of the area, and the area welcomes Academy.

The Starkville store is set to open its doors tomorrow morning.