Arizona Officer Rents Out an Entire Movie Theater So 144 Kids Could Have a First

When funding for a summer field trip fell through at Greenway Middle School in Phoenix, School Resource Officer Sean Reavie didn’t wait for a solution to appear. He paid for one himself.

Reavie rented all 144 seats at a Harkins theater in Scottsdale so seventh and eighth graders in the school’s “After the Bell” summer program could see “Toy Story 5,” according to 12 News. For many of the students, it wasn’t just a movie. It was their first time ever inside a theater.

Program coordinator Katie Jenkins reached out to Reavie after the trip’s funding disappeared.

“She told me how much she needed, and I gave it to them so they could go,” Reavie said.

The rental cost him less than $2,000. He also covered popcorn, candy, and drinks for every student.

“If they needed more, I would have given them more,” Reavie 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, meaning most families qualify as low-income. Assistant principal Stacy Alejo said opportunities like this one matter more than people might realize.

“These opportunities are super important for us,” Alejo said.

A Cop Who’s Seen What Other People Don’t

Reavie has spent 20 years in law enforcement, including six years as a child crimes detective. He said that work gave him a firsthand look at hardships many people never 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.”

This wasn’t a one-time gesture. Last year, Reavie spent more than $3,000 of his own money to take students to Hurricane Harbor water park. About 12 years ago, drawing on what he learned working with frightened kids in his detective years, he founded a charity called Put On The Cape: A Foundation For Hope, which funds child advocacy centers and youth programs.

Before the lights dimmed at the theater, Reavie had one thing to ask 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.”