Copperas Cove Chick-Fil-A holds annual back to school bash

By BRITTANY FHOLER

Cove Leader-Press

The Copperas Cove Chick-fil-A held their annual Back to School Bash last Saturday evening, giving way 175 free drawstring backpacks filled with school supplies.

Chick-fil-A has held the event every year since 2014, except for 2020.

This year’s event featured student athletes and/or coaches from every Copperas Cove High School athletic sport, from football to cheer to Copperettes to soccer, volleyball, tennis, wrestling, basketball and beyond. The Copperas Cove High School cheerleaders performed for the crowd as did the Copperettes. CCHS’s mascot Sparky the Bulldawg also jumped in to compete against his fellow mascots, McGruff the Crime Dog, the Chick-fil-A cow and H-E-Buddy in a dance-off with two Copperettes.

“This was the first year every sport was represented by athletes and coaches at the Chick-fil-A back to school bash,” said CCISD Athletic Director Cari Lowery. “All of our athletes and coaches have been working hard preparing for this school year. I think it’s important that we recognize and celebrate that commitment. Copperas Cove is a great town. We want our athletes to be more involved in our community, and we want our community to see what great things were doing in our athletic department.”

Rita Hogan, the marketing director for the Copperas Cove Chick-fil-A, sat at a table, overseeing the handing out of 175 red drawstring backpacks to families for the upcoming school year. The Copperas Cove Chick-fil-A gave away 75 backpacks during last year’s Back to School Bash. The goal is to give away 250 backpacks next year, Hogan said.

“We wanted to showcase our student athletes and the best of what Cove has to offer, so we had athletes here, cheerleaders here, Copperettes here. We had the junior highs here,” Hogan said. “We had GymKix here, all performing, showing off their skills and talking to the crowd and interacting with the community.”

In addition to the performances and dance offs, there was also a bounce house, plus a fire truck from Copperas Cove Fire Department and a police car from the Copperas Cove Police Department for kiddos to learn about and experience.

Inside, Chick-fil-A employees continued to serve customers who came through the drive-thru line as well as serving the local students, athletes and families who came for the Back to School Bash.

Hogan said that hosting an event like this one is part of what Chick-fil-A stands for.

“It's part of our service to the community,” Hogan said. “Part of our culture is to serve people, and so by offering free supplies and a free party and a pep rally for the community, that fits right in with our mission to serve.”

In addition to highlighting the school athletes, other organizations represented at the Back to School Bash included Cinergy Cinemas and the Copperas Cove Chamber of Commerce.

Marcy Cook attended the Back to School Bash with her family, including her three daughters, ages 1, 4 and 3-years-old.

This was the first time at the Back to School Bash for Cook, but the family enjoyed all that it had to offer, especially the mascots and bounce houses.

With one daughter starting pre-K this year, having something like this was especially meaningful for Cook, she said.

“It’s fantastic,” Cook said. “This is her first year going to school, so I think it’s just awesome to be able to come out to a family event and enjoy it and get school supplies all at the same time.”