Lady Antebellum, the Grammy Award winning country music group, hosted a private "prom" for students at the Henryville Junior-Senior High School, followed by a concert for the devastated tornado hit community at the Kfc Yum Center in nearby Louisville on Wednesday (May 16, 2012), reports the Associated Press.
Drummer Dave Haywood said before the show, "We want tonight, at the concert, for people to just smile, have fun, dance around. We thought that was something we could offer to do to help as well as raise as much funds as we could raise". A deadly series of twisters ripped through Henryville's elementary, middle and high schools on March 2, 2012, killing thirteen people. Just before the tornado hit, Lady Antebellum had announced their "Own the Prom Night" contest in which one school would win a prom performance from the country music group - Henryville was announced as the winning school on March 22. A video submitted by students at the neighbouring Silver Creek High School in Clark County had left the band with an easy decision to make. In the clip, one of the kids say, "Don't get me wrong, we would love to have you at our prom.But there's another school in the West Clark family who deserves it more than any other school in the country".
The juniors and seniors each received five tickets to the show, while Silver Creek's students were allocated one ticket. The benefit eventfully received more than $120,000, with Lady Antebellum singing some of their biggest hits.