Academy ISD and Florence ISD are typically battling for bragging rights on the football field, but their Homecoming game on Friday is going to be different.
Students at Florence Elementary piled into the gym Friday afternoon to celebrate the end of their two week "Acts of Kindness" fundraiser.
"It's all of our kids performing Acts of Kindness as an appreciation to their family and friends and community members who have been donating to our school," PTA President Kylene Harvey said.
And paired with that celebration was a group of students honoring Aiden Martin, the Academy Junior High eighth-grader who died after an ATV accident.
"Our big last act of kindness we asked our students to perform, we asked our students to write letters and draw pictures and notes to Aiden's family and friends in Academy," Harvey said.
PTA leaders who planned the "Acts of Kindness fundraiser said they knew this was the perfect way to end it.
"When this happened, this kind of just fit perfectly in that mold, that we wanted to represent this cause as well," PTA Vice President Miranda Crimbring said.
Academy High School will take on Florence for their Homecoming game Friday night and though the two schools are rivals, Florence will be shedding the purple for the night to honor Aiden.
"We have all vowed to wear green and gold tonight to our football game, we're putting the purple in our back pocket. We are there for Aiden, we are there for everyone, we are there for that family," Crimbring said.
The support for the district was displayed 44 miles away on a wall in the Florence Elementary Gym on Friday, and though all the letters said different things, they were all written for the same reason.
"They will be really sad for a while and so we did it to help their sadness go away," Florence Elementary student Kendall Harvey said.
The school said the banners and cards will be on display at the Homecoming game and then they will be given to Aiden's family.
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