Laura Hiebenthal (staff) and her classes wrote sticky notes to WHS staff every Monday at the beginning of her Gold or Maroon classes. They wrote thankful messages and made these sticky notes to give back to WHS staff.

Hiebenthal, an English teacher, created a positive impact on staff and students every week. Hiebenthal’s classes focused on one staff member every Monday and took 10 minutes out of class time to write and deliver notes to staff. This act of kindness has now received the name Make-A-Day Monday.

Make-A-Day Monday left staff feeling good about themselves, noticed and acknowledged after reading all the notes. Students learned how easy it is to spread acts of kindness and show appreciation to those that usually go unnoticed.

Recently, Hiebenthal’s class made sticky notes for security guards David Flanigan and Jeremy Beets. The notes thanked them for keeping the school safe.

Flanigan said, “I mean it does take a while to get through all of those notes and read through all of them, but once you do and you see all the people you’ve touched and just been able to come in contact with it makes me love my job that much more.”

Hiebenthal’s main goal was not only to give back to the staff; it was also to make sure her students learned how important it is to be appreciative and spread love.

“I hope it’s rubbing off on kids. Kind of the idea of random acts of kindness, looking beyond ourselves. I want kids to be able to read and write, but more than anything I really want kids to be good people, and I hope maybe a little of this rubs off and teaches a kid to maybe say thank you to someone who’s done something for them,” Hiebenthal said.

This main goal has been achieved, and Make-A-Day Monday has touched multiple students’ hearts. Student Brooklyn Ward (09) was inspired by Make-A-Day Monday and incorporated random acts of kindness into her everyday life.

Ward said, “The things I’ve taken away from Make-A-Day Monday are just to like respect the staff that you normally don’t like see, so like the janitors and like those types of people because they work really, really hard to make like our school nice even if we don’t like see them every day.”

Make-A-Day Monday originated last school year when Hiebenthal’s class randomly wrote thank you notes and delivered them. They called this act “drive-by sticky noting.” It wasn’t until the end of last school year that they made the decision to do this weekly and named it Make-A-Day Monday. Whether the name changes or not, though, it seems this tradition is here to stay.