{"id":410929,"date":"2026-07-24T16:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T16:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/410929\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T16:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T16:46:09","slug":"oakland-officials-open-play-lending-library-to-offset-the-cost-of-equipment-for-youth-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/410929\/","title":{"rendered":"Oakland officials open \u2018play-lending library\u2019 to offset the cost of equipment for youth sports"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arizona middle schoolers that were a part of Greenway Middle School\u2019s \u201cAfter the Bell\u201d summer<\/a> program were really looking forward to their field trip<\/a>. However, funding for their end-of-summer field trip fell through. That\u2019s when School Resource Officer Sean Reavie stepped in<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Using money<\/a> from his own pocket, Reavie rented out all 144 seats at a local movie theater so the kids could enjoy a screening of Toy Story 5. The movie, the snacks, the sodas, all on him. For many of the kids, it would be their first time ever watching a movie in a theater.<\/p>\n

After being contacted by the program director, Katie Jenkins, Reavie didn\u2019t hesitate to spend his own money on the theater rental and treats. The cost added up to nearly $2,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they needed more, I would have given them more,\u201d Reavie said to 12 News<\/a>. \u201cYou can\u2019t break a promise to a child. They come here knowing that there\u2019s a reward at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reavie understood that this trip to the movies was more than it seemed. Greenway Middle School is a Title one school, meaning that the majority of the students came from low-income households. Several of the students qualified for free breakfast and lunch daily from the school. Going to a movie theater was a luxury that most of the kids\u2019 families cannot afford.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of them live in a different life than most of us would comprehend, and they just haven\u2019t seen a lot of good things with their own eyes,\u201d said Reavie. \u201cTheir family doesn\u2019t have a car. Parents, if they have two, work multiple jobs. Half of them have never been to a water park before. They\u2019ve never been across the other side of the highway before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prior to the movie, after Officer Reavie explained that he would take care of all expenses, he made just one request to the kids.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs you get older in life, help other people, as a payback to me,\u201d he told them. \u201cWould you do that? That\u2019s all I ask of you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reavie is a superhero (well, dresses like one sometimes)<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time Reavie helped fund a great experience for local school kids. In 2025, he spent more than $3,000 to take students to Hurricane Harbor water park.<\/p>\n

Reavie spent the early years of his police career as a child crimes detective for six years before taking on his current role. Along with that, Reavie started a superhero-inspired charity that supports teen youth programs and child advocacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt dawned on me that little kids who were scared responded to superheroes,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I started a superhero-based foundation called Put On The Cape: A Foundation For Hope<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Put On The Cape organization has officers and \u201ccauseplayers\u201d dress up as superheroes to host events to raise money for children\u2019s causes. Their homepage reads,\u201dOur mission fills the toy closet, food pantry, and clothing wardrobe to the children and their families. This takes the burden off the center so they can focus on healing the child from the trauma they\u2019ve endured.\u201d<\/p>\n

With or without a cape, Officer Reavie is setting a great example of giving in order to plant hope in a generation that could grow up to give back tenfold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arizona middle schoolers that were a part of Greenway Middle School\u2019s \u201cAfter the Bell\u201d summer program were really…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410930,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[38695,143,145,144,164585,148713,63748],"class_list":["post-410929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-child-development","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-third-places","tag-third-spaces","tag-youth-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}