LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - At 5 a.m. today, a Lampeter-Strasburg High School caravan of a bus, two vans, a trailer and a Turkey Hill truck crossed the Alabama state line.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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