LUFKIN, Texas (KTRE) - It’s always great to see athletes, both pro and collegiate, giving back to their community.
And on Friday at the Academy Sports + Outdoors in Lufkin, New England Patriot Wide Receiver and Lufkin native Ja’Lynn Polk is giving back to the community that gave him his start.
20 boys and girls from the Boys and Girls Club of Deep East Texas went on a $200 shopping spree, picking out shoes, clothes and equipment all free of cost.
Something that Polk growing up was never able to do.
“For me to be in a position that I am in,” Polk said. “...have the resources around me and a chance to do things like this, why not?”
And for the kids who got to have their picks of the litter, it was truly a last second suprise.
“I didn’t know it until five minutes before it happened,” Boys and Girls Club member Mackenzie Colclough said. “...so I was kind of confused. I was like, ‘Okay, where are we going?’,”.
But even with the entire event sprung on these kids in the blink of an eye, what impressed Ja’Lynn the most was that these kdis weren’t just thinking about themselves.
“You got awesome kids that just come in here and they don’t just think about themselves,” Polk said. “...you’ve got a lot of kids that were like,’I need to do this for my sister or my brother. I’ve got my dad that I need to get somthing for’,”.
“That just tells you a lot about our community and how well put together we are,”.
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