50 Kids Take Halloween Shopping Trip With Miami Dolphins

MIAMI, FL — While some kids will be dressing up as their favorite Miami Dophins and Dolphin cheerleaders on Halloween, a group of children from two area elementary schools did one better: They went shopping for their Halloween costumes with actual Fins players and cheerleaders.

Team members took 50 children on a Halloween shopping extravaganza earlier this week. The children were from Park Lakes Elementary and Robert Russa Moton Elementary.

The ghoulish shopping squad visited a Spirit Halloween store in Oakland Park and included players, former players, cheerleaders and team mascot T.D. They were in search of this year's best ever Halloween costume.

"The students came into the shop in two waves, with Park Lakes Elementary’s 25 students coming first. Ten Dolphins players, four cheerleaders, three alumni and T.D. greeted the students as they walked in and handed each one a Miami Dolphins T-shirt," according to Theresa Garner of the Dolphins. "Shortly thereafter, the kids were off shopping for costumes with some of their favorite Dolphins players, including Chase Allen, MarQueis Gray, Matt Haack, Neville Hewitt, Malcolm Lewis, Drew Morgan, Cody Parkey, Eric Smith, Gabe Wright and Vincent Taylor."

Once the Park Lakes pupils had their costumes, they were treated to a pizza party from Papa John’s.
Meanwhile, the Robert Russa Moton students hit the store for their chance to shop for costumes. They were accompanied by cheerleaders Alexandra, Britt, Holly and Jenny as well as former Dolphins players Larry Ball, Troy Drayton and Lousaka Polite. The children embraced such Halloween alter egos as the grim reaper, princesses, superheroes and others.

“It’s the holidays. Halloween is coming up and I know kids look forward to going costume shopping. Me being a father and having my own kids, it’s something I couldn’t do this year because they’re out of town,” observed Dolphins tight end MarQueis Gray. “I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to go help these kids and help them have fun today.”

Principals from the two schools handpicked the lucky children between the ages of 5 to 11. Russa Moton principal Eric Wright said he made his selections based on need.

“We come from a low economic area. Most of them have challenges and needs, so it’s just an opportunity to get away from their community, but really they probably wouldn’t have had a chance to go shopping for costumes," he explained. "Most of our students are siblings that come from large families, so usually they don’t all get to get something. This way they all get to get something.”

The Spirit store is located at 3935 N Federal Highway in Oakland Park.

Dolphins Mascot T.D. gets his Halloween spirit on with Miami area children. Photo courtesy Miami Dolphins.