On July 9, Shaquille O’Neal joined kids from the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Dallas at the JCPenney in Mesquite, Texas, to take the One Smart Shop Beat-the-Clock Challenge.
JCPenney provided 20 children with $500 gift cards and one hour to shop with Shaq for apparel, shoes and school necessities like backpacks and water bottles. During the shopping event, kids were also able to receive a kids cut in our JCPenney Salon to complete their back-to-school checklist.
Other special guests in attendance included Kathy Higgins, CEO of Alliance for a Healthier Generation, Karen Tan, CEO of Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Dallas, Daniel Alemán Jr., mayor of Mesquite and Michelle Sing, JCPenney Vice President of Communications & Philanthropy and President of the JCPenney Communities Foundation.
Supporting Our Communities
The Beat the Clock Challenge with Shaq also joined forces with JCPenney’s philanthropic efforts. Leaders from its national nonprofit partner, Alliance for a Healthier Generation, and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Dallas—a JCPenney store Round Up grant recipient—came together to celebrate JCPenney’s investment in The Walking Classroom.
The Walking Classroom, a program of Healthier Generation, is an award-winning teaching and wellness tool that helps kids learn on the move. As the first national sponsor of The Walking Classroom, JCPenney has made a three-year, $300,000 commitment from the JCPenney Communities Foundation that will go towards purchasing 5,000 new WalkKits for classrooms around the country.
During Tuesday’s event, JCPenney presented Alliance for a Healthier Generation with a $100,000 check honoring the second year of sponsorship for The Walking Classroom and donated seventy-five WalkKits to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Dallas, a $30,000 value. This year, JCPenney also donated an additional $15,000 to Healthier Generation to help raise awareness about The Walking Classroom.
“JCPenney is proud to be the first national sponsor of The Walking Classroom,” says Michelle Sing, Vice President of Communications & Philanthropy at JCPenney and President of the JCPenney Communities Foundation. “With year two of our Healthier Generation commitment, we are bringing together our strategic investment in The Walking Classroom with our longstanding Round Up grants program to amplify how we can benefit communities. We’re proud that the Greater Dallas Boys and Girls Clubs received the Mesquite JCPenney store’s Round Up grants, and that they will now have The Walking Classroom for their out-of-school learning programs.”
Now entering the second year supporting The Walking Classroom with an annual commitment of $100,000, JCPenney has earmarked 500 WalkKits for more youth-serving charities in JCPenney’s network of store Round Up recipients. This year, JCPenney will donate over $1,000,000 in Round Up funds to these local charities. Adding additional resources like The Walking Classroom is just one more example of how we stand with communities where our customers live and work.
“Educators regularly report that after implementing The Walking Classroom, students demonstrate more focused minds and settled bodies—leading to improved mood and better behavior and engagement in the classroom,” says Healthier Generation CEO Kathy Higgins. “We were thrilled to join JCPenney, Shaquille O’Neal, and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Dallas for the back-to-school event where we introduced The Walking Classroom’s accessible and innovative methodology—’Walk, Listen, and Learn.’ Together, with JCPenney’s continued commitment to bringing The Walking Classroom to communities, we will keep setting teachers and students up for success in the classroom and beyond.”
Learn more about JCPenney’s multi-year investment in The Walking Classroom here.
