Police Officer Rents Out Entire Movie Theater So More Than 100 Kids Can Experience Their First Trip to the Movies

June 29, 2026

One police officer turned what could have been a disappointing end to summer into a day more than 100 middle school students will never forget.

Officer Sean Reavie / 12 News

When funding for a planned field trip unexpectedly disappeared, School Resource Officer Sean Reavie stepped in without hesitation. He personally paid to rent out an entire movie theater so 144 seventh and eighth graders in Greenway Middle School's After the Bell summer program could enjoy a private showing of Toy Story 5, complete with popcorn, candy, and drinks.

For many of the students, it was much more than a trip to the movies. It was their very first time inside a movie theater.

Program coordinator Katie Jenkins found herself scrambling after the funding for the annual end of summer celebration fell through. With few options left, she reached out to Reavie for help.

"She told me how much she needed, and I gave it to them so they could go," Reavie said.

The theater rental cost less than $2,000, but for the students, the experience was priceless.

"If they needed more, I would have given them more," Reavie said. "You can't break a promise to a child. They come here knowing that there's a reward at the end."

Greenway Middle School is a Title I school in Phoenix, where many families face financial hardships.

Reavie has spent two decades in law enforcement and says working closely with students has given him a firsthand look at challenges many people never see.

"Some of them live in a different life than most of us would comprehend, and they just haven't seen a lot of good things with their own eyes," he said. "Their family doesn't have a car. Parents, if they have two, work multiple jobs. Half of them have never been to a water park before. They've never been across the other side of the highway before."

Helping these kids experience something new has become a personal mission.

Last year, Reavie spent more than $3,000 out of his own pocket to take students to Hurricane Harbor. His commitment to children extends even further through Put On The Cape: A Foundation For Hope, a charity he founded after serving as a child crimes detective.

"It dawned on me that little kids who were scared responded to superheroes," he said. "So I started a superhero based foundation called Put On The Cape: A Foundation For Hope."

Before the lights dimmed and the movie began, Reavie had one final message for the students.

"As you get older in life, help other people, as a payback to me," he told them. "Would you do that? That's all I ask of you."

Instead of asking for anything in return, the officer simply hoped that one act of kindness would inspire hundreds more in the years ahead.