Students around the area will be participating Sept. 28 in the 21st observance of the annual See You at the Pole prayer rally.

Students are planning to gather around school flagpoles all over the world, including here in Suffolk, for a few minutes of prayer and worship before classes.

The event got its start in 1990, when a small group of teenagers in Burleson, Texas, were on a youth retreat together. Feeling compelled to pray for their friends, they drove to three different schools, gathered around the flagpoles and prayed.

Later that year, a group of youth leaders from around the state named the challenge “See You at the Pole” and shared it with 20,000 students at a retreat in Dallas, Texas in June 1990.

On Sept. 12, 1990, more than 45,000 teenagers met at school flagpoles in four states to pray before the start of school.

By the next year, the movement had spread nationwide. On Sept. 11, 1991, an estimated one million students prayed together before school. In recent years, more than three million students from 20 countries have taken part.

Rallies are planned at several Suffolk schools. Students should ask at the office for more information about whether a rally is being held and what time it begins. The schools are officially uninvolved in planning, coordinating or carrying out the events, but principals will have information on student plans for the event.

There’s still time for students to organize a See You at the Pole rally at their school. For more information, visit www.syatp.com.