Copperas Cove's Chick-fil-A holds annual Back to School Bash

By BRITTANY FHOLER

Cove Leader-Press

Dozens of parents and kids attended the Copperas Cove Chick-fil-A’s annual Back to School Bash Thursday evening.

Chick-fil-A has held the event every year since 2014, although they did not hold the event in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.

The Back to School Bash served as a kickoff event to the new school year, with a bounce house, Garris Entertainment as the event’s DJ and appearances by different groups from the community, like the Five Hills Scholarship Pageant royalty.

There was also a Cinergy Cinemas table, a CCPD Law Enforcement Explorers table and performances by GymKix, the CCHS Copperettes, the S.C. Lee Cougarettes, the CCHS cheerleaders and the S.C. Lee cheerleaders and the Siva Ori Polynesia dance group.

Chick-fil-A gave away drawstring backpacks with supplies including Chick-fil-A notebooks, pens, pencils and other fun goodies like hacky-sacks and jump ropes to the first 75 kids 12 and under, and then selected two random winners for a stuffed cow, according to Christiana Vega and Valeria Rivera-Ortiz, with the Copperas Cove Chick-fil-A.

“We just want to make sure that we are involved, and the community knows that we are here to support them,” Vega said. “‘Care’ is our word as a company. We just want to make sure that the people that come into contact with us feel like we care for them even though we give them food, and we want to make sure that they have a good service with us. The main thing that we want them to walk away with is feeling like someone cared for them when they were in the store, and so this event is our way of showing that to the community.”

Vega said that the Copperas Cove Chick-fil-A will soon resume holding its Kids’ Nights with different themes and crafts and activities, and they will also possibly resume Story Time on Friday mornings.

Copperas Cove Independent School District’s Communications Director Wendy Sledd said that the school district was happy to participate at Chick-fil-A’s Back to School Bash, from students and parents to teachers and different student groups.

“Part of what we like to do is give back to the community because goodness knows the community gives to the school district, and it’s evident in things like Stuff the Bus that's coming up before the start of school,” Sledd said. “We rely on our community and our community relies on us, so when they call, we do our best to always answer.”

Sledd said that in addition to the different dance and cheer groups, there were also other students and even some teachers who were at the event, showing their support.

“I think everybody's excited to go back to school and have some sense of normalcy in our lives,” Sledd said. “I know our kids are excited. Parents are even more excited to have their kids going back. I also think that kudos to our teachers who are not on contract yet, who are out here doing this because that's what it's all about is giving back to the community, so, they're here. The students are here. School hasn't even started yet, but that's our commitment to the community.”

Liz Craddock brought her four children to the event, including her daughter who was a member of the GymKix High Velocity dance team.

“It’s really cool,” Craddock said. “I like that they do this kind of stuff in the community, and I like that Chick-fil-A is always a part of it.”