Letting kids be kids instead of hurricane victims, at least for a little while.

From the Picayune Item:

Pennsylvania teens bring homecoming to Mississippi coast schools

Some Good Samaritan teenagers from Pennsylvania are helping students at two Mississippi Gulf Coast high schools set aside their Katrina troubles to celebrate homecoming together.

Some 40 students from Lampeter-Strasburg High School in Lancaster, Pa., are arriving on the hurricane-ravaged coast this week with at least $35,000 in donated money and $15,000 in supplies to provide an elaborate gala for Long Beach and Pass Christian high schools.

“It is going to put some pieces of my life back together,” said Jayson Gordon, an 18-year-old Long Beach senior who has been longing for some semblance of normality since his house was destroyed in the Aug. 29 storm.Katrina plowed across Mississippi's 80 miles of shoreline, splintering homes and businesses with 145-mile-an-hour winds and a storm surge that reached 30 feet in some places. Two months after the storm, the landscapes of Long Beach and Pass Christian are still largely unrecognizable, with landmarks missing and centuries-old live oak trees toppled.

Like Gordon, many students at Long Beach are homeless and living in temporary quarters. The Long Beach campus was damaged, but classes have resumed. Pass Christian High School was so heavily damaged that students are having class in portable buildings at a local elementary school.Homecoming festivities in the past have always been financed by student fundraisers. That wasn't an option this year.

So when the Pennsylvania school adopted Long Beach and asked how their students could help, Susan Whiten, the Long Beach school's principal, suggested hosting a homecoming dance.When the Pennsylvania school heard that neighboring Pass Christian High School was also heavily damaged, students decided to adopt that school, too. Pass Christian held its homecoming game last Friday and it is Long Beach's homecoming opponent this Friday.

Students in the Pennsylvania school district have created T-shirts featuring the logos of both schools. They are bringing in a deejay, and the owner of a local grocery store in Pennsylvania has agreed to provide the food. What is normally an event with homemade sandwiches has blossomed into a catered gala with shrimp.

A photographer will provide free pictures. The gym will be decorated in both schools' colors: red and blue for the Pass Christian Pirates and maroon and white for the Long Beach Bearcats.In three weeks of collecting donations, Lampeter-Strasburg students also secured pricey door prizes that could help replace some items lost in the hurricane, including Playstation 2s, mountain bikes and CD players.

Pennsylvania students also donated about 400 party dresses. Another 100 dresses were sent courtesy of Auburn University's equestrian team.

Almost everybody loves a story about how our kids actually get it after years of staring at the tv:

Pennsylvania teens bring homecoming to Mississippi coast schools
TimesLeader.com - Nov 01 8:55 AM

Pa. students help Katrina-damaged schools put on homecoming
Kansas City Star - Oct 26 2:53 PM

HOMECOMING '05
The Biloxi Sun Herald - Oct 25 10:00 PM