The man in these pictures is Andre Johnson. He plays for the Houston Texans. And he just spent more than $16,000 dollars on toys for at risk kids. Those are the receipts hes holding. Look how long they are. But what makes the story even better is how he did it. He took all the kids on a shopping spree at Toys R Us. Johnson says: “I couldn’t imagine this as a child. I always said if I ever made it, if I was blessed to make a lot of money, I always wanted to give back and do things for kids and just help people out. That’s why I do it.” Johnson met the kids at 8:30 in the morning on his day off. Needless to say every one of them was smiling and couldnt wait to see him. Johnston told them: “You can go through the store and get whatever you want. I’ll pay for it. Have a Merry Christmas.” The kids ranged in age from 8 to 16. They lined up their shopping carts. And after a countdown, they were off. Johnson said he would give them 80 seconds to pick out as much stuff as they wanted. He decided on that amount of time, because his number on the Texans is 80. Johnson also told the kid not to worry about the video game systems, which are all locked up. He said after their carts were filled, they could all pick out whichever game they wanted. This is the 8th year in a row that Johnson has done this. He says: “It’s crazy. Me and my uncle were sitting in the house one day. And I was like, ‘I want to do something for Christmas.’ And he was just like, ‘Have you ever thought about having kids go through Toys R Us and get what they want?’ And I was just like, ‘Naw, I never really thought about that.’ “He was like, ‘Give ‘em 80 seconds to run through the store and let ‘em just get what they want.’ And I was like, ‘That’s not enough time.’ And he was like, ‘They can grab a lot.’ So we did it the first year and when the kids came back, I was like, ‘Wow, I didn’t think they could grab that much stuff in that amount of time.’ I’m not a big Houston Texans fan. But I’m a huge Andre Johnson fan. I really like what he stands for. And I love what he said afterword. You just help them in a way that they thought theyd never be helped. Its an opportunity for their kids to get whatever they want, and they dont have to worry about it. Im glad to take that burden off of them. Amen to that. Quotes courtesy Brian T. Smith/Houston Chronicle and Cara Cook/Community writer for Houston Texans. Photos courtesy Johnny Hanson
Posted on: Thu, 04 Dec 2014 09:55:32 +0000
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