SPARTANBURG, SC (WSPA) – Broome High School students are planning to share school pride with a school in California, and it all started with kind gesture from a school named Saugus High School in Massachusetts, near Sandy Hook Elementary School.

The students at Broome are putting together a care package for the students at Saugus High school in California, to show support and to let them know that they’re not alone.

It all started with a friendly gesture from a school named Saugus High School in Massachusetts, after they sent a care package to Saugus High School in California.

“When they got that box in the mail, they decided to look for a school on the west coast that shared their mascot, which was us,” Broome High School teacher, Tyler Crosby, said.

Both school mascot’s are the “centurions.”

Broome received T-shirts, pictures and hand-written notes from the faculty and staff at Saugus High in California.

In 2003, Todd Hardy was the principal of Broom High. He sent an email to faculty and staff that read in part,

“…the events of Sandy Hook and Boston inspired the principal of Saugus High School in Massachusetts to sends an identical package to Saugus High in California. They in turn paid it forward to us…”

Todd E. Hardy, Principal

On November 14, 2019, a student with a pistol shot five schoolmates at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California, killing two before killing himself.

After this shooting, Broome High School Crosby said he wanted to do something to help.

“As soon as I saw the name of the school, it hit me that was the same school that sent the care package six years ago,” Crosby said.

The students led the way on the project.

“We just talked to all the organizations at Broome and people who are a part of sports teams and things like that, and we just had everyone give something that represented part of their team or organization,” student body president, Lucy Campbell, said.

The care package going to California includes shirts from the athletics department, hand-written notes and armbands that connect the centurion family.

The students are still collecting and packing items for the package.

They plan to ship it out on Thursday.