Academy Sports treats YMCA kids to Carolina Panthers shopping spree

Nine-year-old Beau Mitchell loves the Carolina Panthers. And he got to go shopping for gear to support his Super Bowl-bound football team.

The Rock Hill boy was one of 25 children from programs of the Upper Palmetto YMCA who were each treated to a $50 Panthers gear shopping spree Tuesday by Academy Sports + Outdoors.

What does the trip mean to him? “The world,” Beau said.

He added: “I love the Panthers. They are my favorite team, and I got to spend $50 on any Panthers thing here and I didn’t have to pay for it.”

Trey Hewitt, director of the Rock Hill store, said the retailer saw the outing for children from the Rock Hill and Clover areas “as an opportunity to give back.”

The store is the official sports and outdoor retailer for the Panthers, Hewitt said. Each child teamed up with a store associate who helped them pick out items, he said.

Tyreana Francis, 10, of Clover, chose a T-shirt and lanyard. Tyreana said she has been to a couple of Panthers games and she plans to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday night.

“They are going to win,” she said confidently.

She likes Cam Newton “because he practices and he never gives up.”

And the Panthers? “They work as a team, and they don’t think of themselves,” she said. “They think of the children and their other teammates.”

Ten-year-old Colvin McCoy of Clover, a Cam Newton fan, said he was excited to choose a Panthers hoodie sweatshirt “because I’ve only got big jackets.”

Billie Burris, director of the Stellie Jackson Enrichment Center in Clover, where 12 of the children attend after-school tutoring, said the outing was a big deal to them.

“We talk about the Panthers. And we talk about how people give back, and when you do good things, people do good things back,” she said.

Burris said the outing makes the children feel “like part of the Panthers pep rally.”

This story was originally published February 3, 2016 at 10:47 AM with the headline "Academy Sports treats YMCA kids to Carolina Panthers shopping spree."