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From May 19-23, 2025, ten teams of seniors at Brighton High School will compete in Senior Survivor, an annual competition dedicated to fundraising for local charities that also includes fun events like sleeping at the school overnight.
With AP exams wrapping up and the last day of school approaching for seniors, the week of May 19-23, 2025, might appear to be uneventful; however, the opposite is true at Brighton High School. Instead, this week marks the advent of Senior Survivor, an annual week-long event where teams of seniors compete to raise the most money for local charities while sleeping overnight at the school.
This year’s Senior Survivor teams include Team Red, Adam Gniewek and John Kelley; Team Orange, Will Blanck and Montana Tulley; Team Yellow, Jamison Kramer and Leah Bihlmeyer; Team Green, Ellie Pierson and Michaela McGuire; Team Teal, Ruby Porter and Sadie Porter; Team Blue, Margaux Marrel and Elizabeth Lubowicki; Team Purple, Jack Milton and John Gira; Team Pink, Jonte Mai and Carlos Insignares; Team Ash, Easton Hardesty and Sean O’Keefe; and Team Black, Elliot Gay and Gabriella Garbacik.
The teams had to undergo a selective application process that included submitting a video explaining why they should be chosen for Senior Survivor. Many applicants were drawn not just to the charitable message of the competition but also to its spirited and unifying nature.
“Last year’s Survivor week really inspired me,” Pierson said. “It’s really cool to see all the kids interacting with each team. It’s something the school really looks forward to come May.”
Tulley was also inspired to try out after witnessing the scope and impact of past Senior Survivor efforts, but actually getting selected was a whole new level of elation for her and her teammate, Blanck.
“I felt very excited when I found out we got selected,” Tulley said. “We really put some effort into our video application and were both very hopeful about it, so finding out we got chosen was a huge moment.”
Over the course of the week, the teams will compete to raise money for three local charities: the Carl Nagy Foundation, We Walk the Line and Lacasa Center.
“I think they are great picks. They are smaller charities, but I think it’s really good that we are choosing multiple smaller ones. Wherever the money goes is going to leave a huge impact,” Pierson said.
Lacasa Center is a local nonprofit organization that provides support to victims of domestic abuse by offering a crisis shelter, educational services and legal support. The Carl Nagy Foundation was established in memory of Carl Nagy, a former Brighton High School student who died by suicide. The foundation now works to promote mental health awareness and typically plays an active role in BHS’s Yellow Ribbon Week.
“I think the Carl Nagy Foundation is really important nowadays; so many young adults suffer from poor mental health,” Insignares said.
Though Senior Survivor typically sponsors two local charities, this year it has taken on a third. We Walk the Line, a local organization founded in memory of former BHS student Connor Shea, who served in the U.S. Army and died by suicide, works to provide service dogs to veterans and first responders in Southeast Michigan struggling with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). We Walk the Line also raises money to send children of veterans and first responders to summer camp.
Tonya Shea, one of the founders of We Walk the Line, said that this wasn’t the first time she has applied to be a charity recipient for Senior Survivor.
“So actually we submitted [an application] last year, and we were not picked, which is fine—I mean, there are so many amazing organizations within our community,” Shea said.
We Walk the Line reapplied for the 2025 Senior Survivor cycle. When Shea learned that BHS’s National Honor Society had chosen We Walk the Line as a featured charity this year, she said that they were “very shocked but…very, very excited.”
“Senior Survivor is huge. We put out anywhere from 15-20,000 dollars a [service] dog,” Shea said. “We have four so far that we’ve sponsored since 2021, and with being part of Senior Survivor, it’s going to allow us to add a couple more.”
While Shea acknowledged that “everybody is equally as deserving of opportunities like this,” she also expressed gratitude that the community is continuing to rally around We Walk the Line’s efforts to address the mental health challenges that veterans and first responders face.
“We’re very excited. It’s nice that we’ve had, as a nonprofit—and most importantly, as a family—it’s nice that our community has surrounded us in a moment of tragedy and embraced us and believed in us, and believed in just our desire to want to give back to people and other families in need,” Shea said. “It’s very humbling when the community believes in what you’re doing.”