Livingston Today

A local news segment that included members of Brighton High School’s National Honor Society was a topic of discussion at a recent Brighton Area School District board meeting.

The conversation was centered on the honor society’s fundraising efforts to help a food organization end local hunger.

Sammi Mullett, president of Brighton’s National Honor Society, was featured in the segment alongside fellow student Grace Korziki, who was unable to attend the board meeting.

The duo represented Brighton High School in the Gleaners Double Your Donations fundraiser day.

Local schools have competed in their fundraising efforts for Gleaners regional food pantry in Southeast Michigan for several years now, with the top donating school receiving awards.

Brighton High School also splits up the competition among classes, encouraging teachers and students to compete against each other, even allowing good-natured trash talk between the teams to ramp up the donations as much as possible.

"On behalf of the board. I want to commend you for all of your efforts. I think that year in and year out, the efforts that the National Honor Society puts in are incredibly impactful for our community,” said Board President Roger Myers. “It really, positively affects so many lives, whether it's Gleaners, whether it's veterans. Every year there's a very well-deserved group that benefits from all of your hard work. And as the board, we're very proud of all that you do."

Gleaners is a regional hunger relief organization in Southeast Michigan that “provides food to more than 400 partner soup kitchens, food pantries, shelters, and other agencies across the region, and supplements efforts of those partners by offering direct service drive-up grocery and food box distributions,” the organization's website says. Gleaners says it can create three meals for the community out of every dollar donated.

Mullett said that Brighton is so well known for dominating the fundraiser that other schools know they are vying for second place.

“We raised over $21,000 this year for Gleaners, which is an amazing contribution,” said Mullett. “And actually we learned when we were there that we have won the Hungry Heroes, which is a competition set up by Gleaners the past few years.”

Mullett also thanked her Spanish teacher for introducing her to Gleaner’s, where she now regularly volunteers.