Little Elm High students are conducting a band camp for a Joplin, Mo., school that was destroyed in a massive tornado.
The May 22 tornado damaged or destroyed thousands of homes and businesses and killed 160 people. It also ripped apart Joplin High School's band hall.
"I almost broke down in tears just hearing about it," Tommy Cook said.
"I tried to imagine our band hall just being gone. I couldn't even imagine," Emily Wornson said.
Members of Little Elm's band left Friday to bring music back to Joplin.
"If that happened to us, we would want people to come down and do the same for us," Emily Bowlin said.
Frank Felice, Little Elm band director, said his students will host a band camp this weekend for Joplin High School. They also gathered donations for supplies destroyed by the storm.
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"I think that all bands look at themselves as families," he said.
Proceeds from the sale of a T-shirt designed by a band member's mother benefit Joplin High's marching band program. People from all over the nation are buying the "banding together" shirts.
"You can easily, with a couple hundred kids, spend $80,000 on uniforms," Felice said. "Band instruments can go for a quarter of a million [and] up, so when you put all of those together, it's a huge cost."
The Little Elm band members said this weekend is about more than the money they've raised. It's also about sharing experiences with another band family, they said.
"It is going to be really inspirational for all of us," Camille Broker said.
