Kevin Bacon Back at ‘Footloose’ High School 40 Years Later After Student Campaign, Volunteer Efforts

It’s a final farewell for the student body, as well, who campaigned to bring the actor back as this will be their last year in the school as well. In the fall, students will be relocating to a new facility. What better way to honor the building than by bringing back the star who put it on the national map?

The students didn’t just beg the famous actor to come back, either. They appealed to his philanthropy by offering up their own, volunteering for his Six Degrees charity ahead of their own prom.

According to the charity organization Bacon founded, the students helped build 5,000 kits for those in need, which included more than $865,000 in products. The kits, featuring essentials for daily living as well as an offer for three months of counseling, will be distributed to four different organizations.

“When I first heard about this #BaconToPayson thing, I was like ‘Wow, this is crazy.’ But you were all just tireless, unrelenting in your desire to have me return,” Bacon said on Saturday. “And you talked me into it!”

“I think it’s great to see that kind of commitment to anything,” he continued. “I also think that it’s amazing the power that this movie has had to just kind of bring people together, and connect on the basic ideas there are behind the movie – you know, standing up to authority sometimes, and to being forgiving to people who are not exactly the same as you, and for standing up for your own freedoms and your right to express yourself, and for having compassion for other people.”

The Nebo School District’s social page has been following the efforts of students to bring Bacon back to Payson High School for more than a year now. Now, after the events of Saturday, all of them can officially say they are just one degree away from Kevin Bacon.

You can check out the reaction just below from students and faculty when Bacon praised them for all their creative efforts, work on behalf of their community, and then dropped the bombshell on them that, “I’m gonna come.”

On Saturday, the actor continued his praise of the student body, telling them that they’d done something really special, showing their compassion for others “by turning what could be just a movie star coming back to get a pat on the back, into something really positive.”

“Thank you so much especially for your commitment to giving back to your community and to the people you’re sharing this planet with, and I’m thrilled that we’re going to be working here together today,” Bacon concluded his message before helping the students build those 5,000 kits.

The school also awarded Bacon an honorary diploma for his “timeless performance and forever inspiration left at Payson High School,” with the actor quipping this was the only time he’s ever seen his name on a diploma. He also scored a varsity jacket with “Footloose 1984” on the back.

After a successful work day on Saturday and prom that night, Bacon and the students have certainly earned the right to kick off their Sunday shoes and celebrate a lot of hard work and effort paid off.

See more moments from the memorable weekend below.