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Tom Hanks Responds To One High School’s Tribute With A Heartwarming Message Of His Own

By Edward VKanty
Published on: 18:02 PST, Oct 10, 2015

Tom Hanks is a big star, admired by many throughout the world for his wide range of films from romantic comedies, such as 1984’s Splash, to dramas, like Stephen King’s The Green Mile (1999). Someone as renowned as Hanks must get hundreds, if not thousands, of requests for personal appearances a week, which only makes it that much more amazing that Tom has personally responded to one high school’s request with a very personal and very “Tom Hanks” video, reports Today.

Kerman High School Creates A Massive Tribute To Tom Hanks

It began with an idea and that idea blossomed into a season-long event, during which the Kerman High School student body adopted the films of Tom Hanks as their homecoming theme. As if that wasn’t ambitious enough, the faculty at Kerman assisted the students with also launching a social media campaign with the hope that the Forrest Gump star might be compelled to make an appearance at their high school’s homecoming.

As the campaign went viral, it did, indeed, draw the attention of Hanks, with the Big actor tweeting a message to Kerman High School that was as mysterious as it was thrilling to the students. The tweet inspired the people of Kerman and an entirely new hashtag, as everyone began to speculate on what Hanks might have in store for the high school students and staff.

The #TomHanks2KermanHS hashtag went as viral as the original campaign, spreading throughout social media sites Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram like a wildfire.

As for the rest of the homecoming plans, each class picked a specific Tom Hanks movie to emulate in their float and planned activities for homecoming week. The films chosen by each class were Forrest Gump (1994) for the senior class, Toy Story (1995) for the juniors, Big (1988) for the sophomores, and A League of Their Own (1992) for the freshmen.

Tom Hanks Responds In A Big Way

While some stars might not have taken time from their schedules to respond at all, Tom did so much more than even acknowledge Kerman High School’s tribute to him. Hanks responded in kind, sending along a video response with a running time of nearly seven minutes. Hanks is jolly and engaging as promotes his next film, The Circle, and gives a tour of the film set.

There’s even a brief cameo from Emma Watson for the Harry Potter fans, as Tom leads the tour, giving glimpses of some of the most important areas of filmmaking, such as the food and beverage cart.

The video arrived early enough on Friday that it could be included in the homecoming festivities, which included a parade, dance, and football game. The students were floored by the response, because, although they would have loved to receive Tom Hanks as an honored guest at their homecoming, the videotaped response was even more than many of them realistically expected.

“Definitely proud,” Kerman High junior Sarahi Nunez said of the Tom Hanks video, according to ABC News. “Obviously we weren’t expecting a response for quite a while from Tom Hanks and then all of a sudden he replied two weeks later. Are you serious?”

The students weren’t alone in their awe of Hanks’ response. Even school officials were surprised by the lengths to which Tom went to respond to Kerman High School.

“He spent a lot of time on making it very personal for our students,” Kerman High School assistant principal Margaret Nichols said. “It is — typical of him — witty, humorous, and informative.”

The Circle, starring Tom Hanks and Emma Watson, is scheduled for a 2016 theatrical release.

[Featured image: Tom Hanks courtesy of Rob Kim / Getty Images]

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