As Thanksgiving break approaches, the atmosphere at Brighton High School shifts to gratitude, hope, thankfulness and positivity. Usually to celebrate the holiday season, each class council will paint a section of windows for Christmas; however, Thanksgiving often goes unnoticed, and the windows typically remain unpainted for this looked-past holiday. This year, however, a particular club was able to harness this sense of thankfulness and brighten up the school in awareness of the holiday. The Sierra Club, a student-run organization that strives for “protecting the wild spaces of earth,” according to senior and president Olivia Jagst, organized an event that warmed the hearts of many.
Although the Sierra Club ordinarily focuses on environmental advocacy and meets regularly to collect and return bottles, volunteer at the Howell Nature Center and listen to guest speakers talk about the planet earth, this Thanksgiving, they wanted to accomplish something different. The members of the club gathered together after school on Nov. 14, 2025, to paint the Sunshine Hall windows with positive messages, fun paintings of turkeys and trees and more. A favorite among most students is the interactive window where anyone can write something that they are grateful for on a post-it note and leave it up for all to see.
Passing by these windows while going from class to class left a heartwarming sense of togetherness among many students.
“Usually when I walk through the halls at school in between passing time, I feel bored, but when I walked through the halls this week, the school felt cozier and brighter,” freshman Evelyn Persyn said.
Junior Sam Alamat says the windows looked “fantastic” and looked “as if they were done by professionals.”
Even among the students who helped paint them, the windows left an impact.
“I really enjoyed the sense of community as we all came together to celebrate such an important tradition,” senior Isabella Kim said.
Sophomore Lily Meyer, who has had a leadership role in the Sierra Club since freshman year, said the activity was “a great way to appreciate the fall season and brought our whole club together to celebrate a season of giving.”
The club hopes to continue this tradition of painting windows year after year, finding it important to not just skip over the Thanksgiving season but instead celebrate it, even in small ways.
