Brighton sports teams support National Day of Service
Oct 07, 2024 09:22AM ● By Jerry S. Christensen
Bengal football players add strength to Bengal Boulevard beautification. (Jerry Christensen/City Journals)
Brighton sports teams have a history of giving back to the Cottonwood Heights community through meaningful service projects. The tradition is embraced by team captains who find and complete service — many times without being prompted by the team coaches.
“Not only are we able to help the community out, we build our team culture by working together,” said girls wrestling assistant coach Lydia Lewis. This year the Brighton football and wrestling teams took the opportunity to serve the community on the 9/11 National Day of Service and Remembrance.
This year’s 9/11 Day of Service fell on Saturday, Sept. 14. Kent Thomas, a Cottonwood Heights resident, formed a committee early in the year to plan out three service projects that would benefit various communities and celebrate the 9/11 tradition of remembrance and service.
“This 9/11 National Day of Service tradition is so gratifying to me. We have so many people from different walks of life with different beliefs all united in serving the community. We live in a great city,” Thomas said.
Refugees within the city were beneficiaries of one of the projects that attracted 40 people who gathered on the Saturday morning to create quilts. “There are many urgent needs in our community that can be met by individuals unable to provide outdoor manual labor,” said Marilyn Cowan who headed up the quilting effort. “I am happy that we offered a service activity for the Refugee Resettlement program in our community.” Nine twin-sized quilts were created during the Day of Service project.
An ongoing CH Day of Service tradition is filling the Brighton High pantry each September for the new school year. This year’s food drive for Brighton students in need was an embarrassment of riches. “We are so grateful to everyone who donated food or money to our Brighton High principal’s pantry. Our shelves are overflowing and many families in our community will benefit from your generosity. Thank you! Thank you!” said Brighton’s Principal Marielle Rawle.
The Brighton girls and boys wrestling teams took ownership of gathering and sorting the unprecedented three truckloads of food that the community donated on the day of service. “I think it’s great that we as a team can help others on and off the mat. It was a great experience and I’m glad I was able to help,” said girls wrestling team member Mei Mei Engebretsen.
It was the Brighton football team that came out in numbers to add strength to the community volunteers who chose to brave the morning sun and the dust and work on the xeriscape project at Bengal Boulevard and 2600 East.
“Bengal and 26th is now a garden spot highlighted by the newly installed art wraps and complemented by beautiful landscape art,” said Cottonwood Heights Arts Council chair Laura Garcia. The 130 community volunteers who came out to xeriscape and beautify all four corners of the city intersection not only paid homage to the local artist, Savannah Cottam, whose art wrap marks the area across from Cottonwood Cyclery but they also created a model for what sustainable xeriscaping looks like in the city. “The city was beautified, friendships were made, and a sense of community was felt while we worked together. What could be more beautiful than that? Let’s do it again!” exclaimed Randy Whitehead, who masterminded the Bengal Boulevard Beautification project.
Head coach for Brighton football Casey Sutera was “super proud” of the team leadership of Mason Haertel, Gus Blake, Cash Gay, Ryce Palopoi, Easton Gustafson and Gavin Roth. “The character of our players goes way beyond the football field. The leadership of these student athletes on and off the field speaks volumes about what kind of people they are.” λ