NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) – Sitting in his New Orleans class, 16-year-old Sal Balsamo has been busy.

He’s been busy thinking.

Thinking about his upcoming senior year.

But WGNO Good Morning New Orleans features reporter Bill Wood knows Sal has been in another state of mind lately.

In fact, in another state, all together.

Sal Balsamo has had Mississippi on his mind.

Specifically the city of Rolling Fork.

That’s where an EF-4 tornado took the town down back in March.

As a kid, Sal visited Rolling Fork every summer to spend with an aunt, uncle and cousins there.

When the tornado hit, it hit him hard.

Sal says, “it kind of hurts, that place was part of me.”

So Sal set up a meeting with his principal to present a proposal to set up big boxes all around his school to collect supplies for the Mississippi folks who lost everything when the tornado attacked.

And at what’s now called The Willow School, used to be Lusher Charter, after just one week…you know what wound up in those boxes set up by Sal?

Sal says, “toilet paper, canned food, baby diapers, bottles of water, some people brought clothes.”

He collected 3,000 pounds of stuff.

Almost a ton.

So much, he had to rent a U-Haul to make the four-hour delivery drive himself.

As a New Orleans teenager, Sal Balsamo has a lot on his mind.

Like the rest of his life.

But before that, he’s figuring it out today.

For folks like the rest of us.