Loaded with excited students and party supplies, caravan travels from L-S to Mississippi to provide an unusual homecoming celebration that's getting national attention.
By Robyn Meadows
Published Nov 03, 2005 13:32
The caravan was expected to reach Mississippi by lunchtime.
By early afternoon, the students and 18 chaperones were expected to arrive in Long Beach, Miss.
Lampeter-Strasburg High School students (12 boys and 28 girls) were traveling 1,168 miles to throw a homecoming dance for Long Beach and Pass Christian High Schools.
“I don’t know what to expect,” said Hillary Duncan, a L-S sophomore, as she prepared to leave Wednesday. “I hope we are going to give them a homecoming to remember.”
This morning, while on the road, L-S sophomore Abbey Fulmer said via cell phone: “It’s just incredible. It’s unbelievable and I think it’s really God’s doing, too.”
The neighboring towns of Long Beach and Pass Christian both suffered severe damage from Hurricane Katrina.
Long Beach’s homecoming game is against Pass Christian on Friday. So the school invited Pass Christian to participate in a joint homecoming dance on Saturday.
There is a lot of work to do first.
The caravan left L-S about 2 p.m. Wednesday.
Crowds of students and faculty lined the road to wave goodbye. Some held signs that read, “L-S LOVES MISSISSIPPI!” and “Go Long Beach Bear Cats!”
But long before the L-S students left the state, they experienced an “incredible” journey.
The fund-raiser started with a simple idea from one student, 18-year-old senior Tyler Dietrich. His father lives near Long Beach, so he wanted to help a Mississippi school.
His idea became so much more.
In four weeks, L-S students have raised $75,000 in cash and donated services from more than 100 local businesses. Their efforts garnered national media attention.
“I can’t even describe it,” Dietrich said. “It’s just ridiculous.”
Lancaster-based Executive Coach donated a bus and two drivers and reduced its mileage rate. Turkey Hill donated a truck and two drivers.
Darrenkamp’s Markets gave pounds and pounds of food (including a Gulf favorite, shrimp) for the dance and trip.
NXT Salon in Lancaster is sending eight hairdressers by plane to style hair for the Long Beach Homecoming Court.
Also making the trip is a photographer and local disc jockey, “DJ NAS,” otherwise known as Nick Schucker, 20.
Ford New Holland donated two tractors, to replace some of the two schools’ lost maintenance equipment.
And L-S students collected and shipped 600 prom dresses and dozens of new men’s dress shirts and ties.
Many dresses came from the closets of L-S students and some from other local schools, such as Solanco and Garden Spot.
Goodies fill the truck and vans, including hundreds of T-shirts with the Long Beach and Pass Christian logos.
It appears as if the two southern high schools will have a homecoming fit for the Academy Awards, with all its glitter and glamour. The theme is “Hollywood Nights.”
Lindley Gallagher, 17, and Lacy Frank, 17, co-presidents of the L-S student council, said that Long Beach’s and Pass Christian’s homecoming courts will enter the dance Saturday on a red carpet, guarded by velvet ropes, surrounded by the flashing lights of the paparazzi.
L-S students had someone create a backdrop of the Hollywood sign nestled on its California hill.
It’s no wonder this effort has attracted local, state and national print and TV media.
“Good Morning America” is expected to broadcast footage from the dance.
Unfortunately for some L-S students, there were only so many seats on the bus.
To earn a seat was fierce competition.
The top 15 money-gatherers won spots automatically. The rest were awarded by a lottery system.
Duncan, 16, was one of the top fund-raisers with $2,100. With her dad’s help, she was able to get Turkey Hill to donate the truck and drivers.
Angie Snyder, 16, also a sophomore, was another top fund-raiser with $1,500 — all of it cash.
She went door to door. She hit up family members. She donated two of her paychecks from her job at a farmer’s market.
By Wednesday afternoon, the students were ready to get on the road.
Many students took pictures with their parents and friends.
Before they left, Matt Cooper — who, along with student council adviser Jackie St. John, helped organize the fund-raiser — gave the group a pep talk.
“When you ask them, ‘How are you doing?’ Listen,” he told them before leaving. “Wait for a response.”
This morning, St. John said via a cell phone that the trip has been smooth.
The girls have been riding the coach bus, (boys in the vans) and most slept through the night.
“It’s been a hoot,” Cooper said today. “The kids have just been great. Everyone is running on adrenaline now.”
After breakfast this morning, they even played a quick game of tag football in a McDonald’s parking lot.
Some listened to music or read. Others chatted and watched movies.
Cooper has kept them busy.
He brought all of the “Rocky” movies for the bus ride, much to the chagrin of the all-girl passenger list.
So far, the girls have watched “Rocky I,” “Rocky II” and “Rocky III.”
But they could switch to a “chick flick,” each time they won a hand at “rock, paper, scissors” against Cooper.
So far, they’ve watched “Mean Girls” and “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.”
When the caravan reached Mississippi, the state police planned to escort the L-S caravan into Long Beach.
This afternoon, Long Beach planned to throw L-S a parade down what once was the town’s Main Street.
On Sunday, L-S students head home and arrive in Lancaster County early Monday morning.
“I expect a lot of tears,” Cooper said.
He also expects a lot of changed lives.
