Seager helps students wth $400 shopping spree
As the Arlington High School senior pushed his cart down the aisle at Academy Sports + Outdoors toward the shoe section, the guy walking by gave him a fist bump.
That guy wasn’t another customer. It was Corey Seager, Texas Ranger and two-time World Series MVP.
When the senior made it to the shoes, someone was there to help him find his size. But it wasn’t an Academy employee. It was Wyatt Langford, the Texas Rangers’ star rookie.
“What size is that?” Langford asked.
“13,” the Arlington High senior said. “What size do you wear?”
“12,” Langford answered.
Up at the front of the store, a junior from Sam Houston High School had spent the morning looking for cold-weather clothes. But a Texas Rangers jersey had caught her eye. The short-sleeved shirt wasn’t designed for the winter, but the sky-blue Adolis Garcia replica jersey was too much to resist.
But there was a problem. It was hanging up high – too high for most to reach.
But not too high for Texas Rangers’ general manager Chris Young. The 6-foot-10 former pitcher reached up and got it for her. And then he repeated the feat for another student.
There were other Rangers there, too. Josh Jung, Josh Smith and Robbie Grossman all pitched in as well to help 30 Arlington ISD high school and junior high students get their school year started off right.
But it was Corey Seager and his wife Madisyn Seager who brought everyone to Academy for this event last Saturday morning. For the second year in a row, the Seagers funded a back-to-school shopping spree for Arlington ISD students who are part of the district’s Families in Transition program.
These are students who are dealing with homelessness. And many are unaccompanied.
“Unaccompanied youth mean they’re not living with a parent or guardian,” said Dr. Elizabeth Garza-Higgens, a program specialist in Arlington ISD’s student outreach services department, which oversees the Families in Transition program. “They’re couch surfing, they’re staying with friends or they’re living with someone else.”
So, these are exactly the students who need something like a shopping spree the most.
The students are identified during school registration and then the Families in Transition staff reaches out to them. A social worker is assigned to each student to help them throughout the school year.
But the assistance they can provide is limited. And while the department has a Care Center with donated items for students in the program like school supplies, socks and uniforms, much of what they have is for younger students. There isn’t as much for the older students in junior high and high school
That’s why the shopping spree was especially helpful for the students who came from all six Arlington ISD traditional high schools, along with Venture High School and Workman and Bailey junior highs.
“This is amazing,” Garza-Higgins said.
Early Saturday morning
The shopping spree started early Saturday morning – well before Academy normally opens. Academy’s staff and the Texas Rangers Baseball Foundation team had it all well-organized. As the 30 students arrived, they entered into the side of the building into a stock room where they were given a Rangers hat and Chick-fil-A breakfast.
Soon, Rangers players started walking in, too, and Karin Morris, the executive director of the Texas Rangers Baseball Foundation, got it all started.
“Today is about you guys,” Morris told the students. “You’ll have $400 to spend on whatever you want.”
But that wasn’t all. After the shopping spree, each student was going to get another $100 to use however they wanted.
After a group photo, the students each got a shopping cart and streamed into the store.
“Thank ya’ll so much!” someone shouted. “We’re going shopping! Wooo!”
The Rangers players and general manager, wives and staff spread out in the store to help with the shopping – and pose for photos.
“It’s a community that supports us,” Seager said. “So, any way that we can support them back and get in there and meet some people and hear some stories – that’s the exciting part for us … Just seeing the smiles on their faces is everything you need. It’s a lot of fun. It’s a really cool event for us.”
Seager’s wife, Madisyn Seager, loves the event, too, and was instrumental in making it happen.
“We were trying to figure out ways we can give back … I asked what we could do with kids – they just hold a special place in our hearts – and she [Morris of the Rangers Baseball Foundation] suggested this. We did it last year and it was amazing, and some of the stories we heard from some of the students who were here were just incredible. I’m glad we got to do it again.”
Stephanie, a junior at Sam Houston, is glad they did it again, too.
“It’s been phenomenal,” she said. “I’m so thankful for the opportunity. It’s amazing to be around the Rangers, and we also got a shopping spree, so it’s really helpful.”
While Stephanie was focused on shopping for clothes, it wasn’t just clothes that some of the other students were after.
A Sam Houston senior who runs the 100 meters for the Texan track team was looking for track spikes.
Photo from the Texas Rangers
A senior from Martin High School who is in the culinary program at the Career and Technical Center and is going to be the CTC’s Bistro manager this year may have picked out the most unique item: a small grill.
And a senior from Arlington High must have been inspired by the Rangers because he decided he needed to get a baseball bat. And he got some pretty amazing help selecting the perfect one. Langford had spent most of the morning helping students in the shoe department, but he made his way to the baseball aisle with the senior.
“This one is sick!” the senior said.
“Try it,” Lanford told him. “Is that too heavy?”
Langford then proceeded to offer tips on his swing. He also explained some of the differences between wood and metal bats.
“They [the Seagers] asked us [Rangers players] if some of us wanted to come do this and it’s hard to say no to something like this,” Langford said. “I’m having a lot of fun helping these kids out. It’s pretty cool.”