Television commercials for Turkey Hill ice cream soon will begin showing up in Baltimore, Philadelphia, the Carolinas, New York City and as far south as Florida.

But last Friday, kids at Bethel Park's Lincoln Elementary School saw them first. It was only fitting. They were, after all, stars of the show.

"You guys are going to be national heroes," said Tom Wright, vice president of marketing for Turkey Hill, a Lancaster County company that produces not only ice cream and dairy products but bottled iced tea and fruit drinks.

Sitting on the "red carpet" -- actually a large swatch of brightly colored paper -- an excited group of about 45 kids cheered.

Turkey Hill representatives were in the Pittsburgh area shortly before the winter holidays to scout locations for a series of four commercials. The theme of the 30-second commercials was "kids' pageant," so they were looking for a traditional wooden stage with a curtain.

They eventually chose Neil Armstrong, a middle school in Bethel Park, but imported dozens of kids from Lincoln, as well a few actors from outside the district, to act in the commercials.

The week-long shoot had some of the kids on set for almost 12 hours at a time, but as Mr. Wright noted, "It was a loose set.

"Even though they did a lot of work with rehearsal time, and many, many hours of learning their lines before they ever got up there on that stage, it's obvious how much fun they were having."

Harrisburg-area advertising agency Pavone produced the commercials, with Jerry Pope as director. Bethel Park middle school music teacher Trish Quinque played a dual role: She was briefly in one of the commercials but also taught the kids to sing the Turkey Hill jingle.

Months later, students still remembered the words, singing it last weekend before friends and family at the premiere party.

In fact, Mrs. Quinque's two children, Alena, 10 and Jonathan, 7, served as test subjects as she tried to figure the best way to teach the song to first-graders.

Their reward: Turkey Hill ice cream, which is now their favorite, she said.

Much of her filmed performance ended up, as they say, on the cutting-room floor. In this digital age, of course, it's actually a virtual trash bin.

"I kept telling everybody who was so excited about seeing me in the commercials, 'Please, don't blink.' But when I saw how much has to happen in 30 seconds, I understood."

Besides the "red carpet," there were other festive touches at the party, as well as free ice cream and iced tea. Each child received a decorative paper star with his or her name on it and received an introduction into the stage area.

Bows and curtsies were optional.

Outside the school, many stopped to have their pictures taken in the considerable shadow of Turkey Hill's mascot, a 13-foot-high statue of a dairy cow.

The cow rides around the country on the back of a trailer and next year is scheduled to visit Japan. Pulled by a refrigerated "sample" truck, it even has its own cow horn.

After its stop in Bethel Park, it was "moooving" on to Philadelphia the next day for a memorial service at Citizens Bank Park for Hall of Fame broadcaster Harry Kalas.

Inside Lincoln Elementary, the kids remained relatively patient through a number of short speeches, including one from Bethel Park School District public relations director Vicki Flotta.

Gesturing toward Lincoln student Kelly Shelpman, who had a big role as a blue bird in one of the ads, Ms. Flotta noted how long ago it seemed since the commercial shoot: "Kelly, you have front teeth now!"

Before getting down to the feature event, the audience was shown a short film that incorporated footage shot by the Turkey Hill people, plus still pictures from Ms. Flotta.

And then, the commercials.

There were squeals of recognition from the children as the ads played across a screen at the front of the room. The final segment drew the biggest reaction; it was the one where a choir of kids in white shirts and black pants sang the jingle.

"To tell the truth, we had very few retakes during the shoot because of someone forgetting their lines or having a miscue," said Mr. Wright, who said the ads will be on television late next month.

"It was mostly fine-tuning, getting the positions right.

It was fun watching them. I just had a ball, knowing they were having fun."