Members of the student body at Kerman High School launched the #TomHanks2KermanHC campaign on social media last month (Aug15) in a bid to convince the Forrest Gump star to accept an invitation to lead their festivities, after teacher David Bakholdin suggested they draw inspiration from the actor's movies for this year's (15) event.

Student faculty adviser Bakholdin personally appealed to Hanks via a YouTube video on 21 August (15), saying, "We would like to officially extend an invitation to Mr. Hanks to come to Kerman to be the marshal of our festivities that take place on October 9. We know this is a long-shot, but let's show everybody what our school - and more importantly, what our community - is capable of when we all work together."

The campaign went viral, and this week (31Aug15), Hanks himself responded to the invite with a mystery message.

Taking to Twitter.com, he wrote, "Gear up, Kerman High School for Homecoming! I'm working on something for the Festivites!"

Student body president Hannah Turner admits she was stunned by the actor's prompt reply and is in awe at how quickly word has spread.

She tells Today.com, "It really was just amazing. We never thought that it would happen this fast."