PHARR — Children from the Boys & Girls Clubs of Weslaco and Mission on Friday gathered at Academy Sports + Outdoors, they hugged the Rio Grande Valley FC Mascot and whispered about what they would spend their “shopping spree” money on at the store.
Academy Sports + Outdoors teamed up with RGV FC to show appreciation to the community and underprivileged children by providing 30 local children and their families with $100 gift cards while the Toros provided the children with backpacks full of school supplies and the tickets to their next home match in September.
“‘Give – Back to School’ is a project that the entire Rio Grande Valley FC organization embraces due to the importance of giving back to its community and underprivileged youth to provide the necessary tools to succeed in the classroom comfortably,” RGV FC Vice President Hondo Candelaria said.
The National Retail Federation’s annual back-to-school and back-to-college survey, conducted by Proper Insights & Analytics, expects households to spend upward of $864 to return to the classroom this year.
“With the way our economy is impacting us right now, this is a blessing for a lot of families and kids,” Pharr’s Academy Sports + Outdoors Store Director Jose Perez said. “I am just glad that Academy is part of this event that we are having.”
The timing of the event coincides with Texas’ annual tax-free weekend. The sales tax holiday runs through midnight Sunday, Aug. 7.
Community support and the tax-free weekend will help offset the price rises that the families participating in the event are experiencing due to inflation.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported an overall rise of 9.1% to the Consumer Price Index over the last 12 months. The Consumer Price Index measures the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for a market basket of consumer goods and services.
“It is going to help a lot,” Mission Boys & Girls Club Director Rick Venecia said. “We live in an area where most of our kids are underprivileged, so an opportunity like this provides them supplies that they normally would not have. This is something that will help them for the new school year and programs with us.”
The families will be in attendance for RGV FC’s home match on Sept. 10 against New Mexico United, the first match back after a five-week long road trip for the Toros.
