Texas Roadhouse workers decided to host a Back to School Bash along with their own End of Summer Party at the Amarillo location on Monday, Aug. 3.
Rebecca Romero, owner and manager of the Amarillo Texas Roadhouse, said that her team wanted to do something to give back to the community this year, to help families get ready for the school year. “We do an end of summer bash for our staff every year,” she said. “We go swimming, and just have a lot of fun together in one big party.”
The owner said she knew the economy was tight, and when one of her employees told her she spent $600 on supplies for her several kids, she knew it would be a good thing to do.
Romero explained that all Texas Roadhouse Restaurants are individually owned, so they can do what they want for the community to give back in ways that works for them.
At Monday’s Amarillo event, there were bounce houses, slides, and a dunking tank where workers got immersed in cold water, as well as free snow cones from Kona Ice, food and lemonade.
Around 20 staff members set up craft tables along with the bounce houses.
“We wanted to do something similar to that for the community — they give so much back to us through the year,” Romero said. “This was one way we thought we could give back to them and get people ready for school. The Back to School Bash also had a face painter and different vendors with homemade items such as crocheted animal figures.”
Romero said they spent around $5,000 for supplies for around 500 students and had 125 backpacks loaded for the first 125 who came, and they showed up fast, she said.
With the extra supplies, they are going to take them to the Barrio Bash next weekend at Alamo Park.
“We participate in the Barrio Bash, and this will be our third or fourth,” she said.”We just wanted to do soething similar that we could do here at our restaurant and coordinate it ourselves.”
Nell Williams is a staff writer covering trends and other news for the Amarillo Globe-News. Have a story idea? Email her at nwilliams@usatodayco.com .
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Back to School Bash gives out 125 filled backpacks at Texas Roadhouse
Reporting by Nell Williams, Amarillo Globe-News / Amarillo Globe-News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Nell Williams, Amarillo Globe-News | USA TODAY Network
