Students usually love it when school is cancelled. Whether it’s for a holiday or some other reason, a day off school means fun! But in one small American city, students got out of school for a special reason—to save their town! North Dakota is a state in the northern part of the USA. Fargo is the biggest city in North Dakota. It gets a lot of snow in the winter. When spring comes, all that snow melts and fills the rivers and lakes. If this melting happens too fast, the rivers can flood. The Red River runs through Fargo. The area around the city is very low and flat. This makes the river move very slowly. It floods every year in the spring. In 2009, the flood was the worst in history. The river was over twelve meters higher than usual! As the Red River rose higher, people became very afraid. That much water would cause huge problems in the city. The only way to stop this was to build a wall along the river. People made this wall by using bags filled with sand. Scientists warned that Fargo would need over 1 million sandbags in order to stop the water. City workers and other people from Fargo rushed to make enough sandbags. They worked for many days and nights. But they couldn’t do it alone, and they were running out of time. City leaders asked for help. So the schools allowed students to take time off from class. They had to ask their parents if it was all right. Over one thousand students joined the sandbag effort. They worked three to four hours each day for two weeks. Thanks to their hard work, Fargo met the goal of 1 million sandbags. They built the wall in time to stop the water. The students helped to save their town!