Dexter High School Students Plan Second Annual Fundraiser for United Nations Foundation

For one night this week, students at are shutting off their cell phones, logging off of Facebook and enjoying the company of their classmates during the second annual "Airplane Day" fundraiser.

The event draws students together at to celebrate the life of former classmate Laurence Carolin.

Airplane Day, will include live music, food and games on Saturday, along with performances by the bands Bluesmatics, Spin Cycle and Alex and Naomi Anest.

Airplane Day is so called because it is the anniversary of Laurence's arrival by airplane in the United States when he was adopted from his birth country of South Korea in 1997.

“When Laurence was alive, his father and I would celebrate ‘Airplane Day’ every year by taking Laurence out for Korean food and giving him gifts. It was like a second birthday,” his mother Lisa Carolin said.

Laurence, 15, died in January 2010 after being diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor.

Carolin said during the last year of her son’s life, he spent countless hours crusading to eradicate poverty.

“Laurence had the Make-A-Wish Foundation donate money to the United Nations Foundation, which works with ONE.org – a grassroots advocacy and campaigning organization that fights extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa,” she said.

ONE.org was co-founded by Bono of the rock band U2, whose music inspired Laurence, throughout his battle against cancer, to think outside of himself.

The event is free and open to the public with an optional donation to the United Nations Foundation. For more information on Airplane Day, visit the event's Facebook page.

"We want to help educate the high school students to think globally and not have their heads stuck in Dexter,” DHS senior Samantha Griffith told Ann Arbor.com. “We want to help start a generation of global thinkers. So far it's been going very well.”