By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – For Noah Galloway, a star from the 2015 season of the Dancing with the Stars TV show, the decision to accompany a local group of students and teachers to Honduras this summer was easy.

“I thought it was a great idea,” said Galloway, who has used a prosthetic leg since losing portions of his left arm and leg in a 2005 improvised explosive device attack while serving as a U.S. Army sergeant in Iraq. “I’ve been to third-world countries, and I know that they either don’t have prosthetics, or if they do, they don’t fit correctly.”

When Galloway learned a group of Alabaster students this summer will continue a program begun by Calera students a few years ago to design prosthetic legs for Honduran residents, he had no reservations about volunteering to travel to Central America.

This summer, several Alabaster students, teachers and volunteers will travel to Jutiapa, Honduras, through the Alabaster City Schools Sister Schools project. While there, the Alabaster group will complete several tasks, such as setting up a computer lab for the Jutiapa school district, setting up a water purifier and volunteering at a free medical clinic.

The Sister Schools project is led by Thompson High School engineering teacher Brian Copes, who began working with students to benefit Honduras while he was a teacher at Calera High School in 2013.

To raise money for this summer’s Honduras trip, Copes, Galloway and a slew of other local government officials and celebrities spent time in a fake jail cell at Alabaster City Hall on March 11.

Throughout the day, folks such as APH Radio founder Gene Rowley, U.S. Congressman Gary Palmer, Alabaster Mayor Marty Handlon, state Rep. Matt Fridy, Galloway and Alabaster teachers donned jail jumpsuits and remained in the City Council chambers until someone paid to bail them out.

“We were looking to do something that would get the whole community involved,” Copes said. “We want this to be a whole community project, not just a school project.”

To donate to the Sister Schools project, visit Acssisterschools.wix.com/sisterschools.

“To have a chance to go down there and see firsthand how these students are working to help others was definitely something I wanted to do,” Galloway said.