Members of the Kingston High School Tiger Marching Band just sent a check for $2,500 to bandmates they have never met.

"I'm sure that they're a big family just like us," Tiger Band member Francesca Coates said. "They're a 'bamily.' "

Coates said her bandmates here at Kingston High all felt the need to do something for the 40 members of the Channelview (Texas) High School marching band after their bus accident.

"If it happened to us, I'm sure that other bands would reach out to us," said Coates, a senior.

The accident happened on March 13 in Alabama. The Channelview band was returning home from a performance at Walt Disney World. Several instruments and equipment were destroyed when the bus crashed into a ravine. Twenty students and the band director were hospitalized, and the driver was killed.

Upon learning the news, the KHS Tiger Band immediately started raising funds to replace some of Channelview's instruments.

The band members collected about $1,500, and the booster club added another $1,000 before sending the check to Channelview. The whole fundraising effort took about 10 days, a band booster said.

"It's just something that humans should do, especially teenagers, because we're kind of the future," Coates said. "We will be the future, and I think it's a really important thing to do."

Boosters and teachers involved with the KHS Tiger Band said acts of service like this one "are expected of the students."

The band has come to make these fundraisers and kind gestures routine. After the Tiger band's latest trip to Disney World, they donated their souvenir hats to children at St. Jude's Hospital.

"Our band is the recipient of many, many donations throughout the year," band booster Robyn Murray said. "When something horrific happens, it's nice to give back."