By Jake May
mlive.com
GRAND BLANC, Mich. — One year after a deadly attack shook Grand Blanc Township, students at West Middle School found a simple way to say something that can be difficult to put into words: thank you.
More than 20 students delivered nearly 200 gift bags and handwritten notes Thursday, Sept. 24, to Grand Blanc city and township police and fire departments, recognizing the first responders who served the community during and after the Sept. 28, 2025, shooting and arson attack at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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The school-wide service-learning project gave students a way to participate in their community while acknowledging a tragedy many of them experienced firsthand or through people they know.
It also came as the community prepared to mark the attack’s first anniversary Monday, when the church is scheduled to hold a groundbreaking ceremony for a new meetinghouse.
“It means a lot because I get to hang out with all these special people,” said Ellie Chesnut, 12, a seventh-grader whose father, Erik Chesnut, is a firefighter with the Southfield Fire Department. “I’m so happy to be thanking the police department and firefighters because I know how hard it is.”
The attack killed five people, including the shooter, and destroyed the church building.
At West Middle, the response was designed to be about more than a single day of deliveries.
Students in sixth, seventh and eighth grades wrote individual thank-you cards during their advisory, or WIN time, classes. The school has about 675 students.
Principal Diana Balbaugh said the project reflects one of the school’s responsibilities beyond academics: teaching students how to be members of their community.
“Our job isn’t just to teach students in the closed doors of the classrooms, but our job is to teach them to be citizens and to give back to communities and be part of something bigger than themselves,” Balbaugh said.
The project was funded with $1,250 the school received from a $10,000 contribution the Grand Blanc Relief Fund made to the school district.
Each school in the district received money to conduct a service-learning project.
West Middle band director Jake Finkbeiner helped coordinate the project.
He wanted a way for students throughout the school to participate rather than limiting the effort to the group making the deliveries.
Finkbeiner said the handwritten cards offered a manageable way for middle school students to make a meaningful contribution.
“I think often when they’re this age, they feel like they can’t do anything about helping these kind of situations,” Finkbeiner said. “They don’t have to do a huge thing to make a difference in someone else’s life.”
The students who delivered the gifts were members of the school’s Unified group, which pairs general education students with students with special needs. The group regularly participates in activities designed to build relationships, social skills and connections with the broader community.
The deliveries also gave students the chance to meet some of the people behind the departments they were supporting.
They toured police and fire facilities, and each student received a challenge coin from the Grand Blanc Township Fire Department.
The school prepared four banners signed by students that were to be presented to representatives of the city and township police and fire departments during a school pep assembly.
For West Middle, the timing of the project carries additional weight.
Balbaugh said students either knew about the church attack or knew someone who was involved.
The school has also experienced significant loss of its own, as Social Studies teacher Jamie Hagenauer died last October, and football coach Logan Welch was killed one month later.
“We’ve kind of all been handling one another with care, especially over the last year,” Balbaugh said. “And so I think this giving-back opportunity is a result from our kids asking, ‘What can we do?’”
That question became an opportunity to turn grief and gratitude into action.
Finkbeiner said the lesson he hopes students take from the project is that service does not have to be complicated or large to matter.
A handwritten note can take only minutes to create.
As the students delivered nearly 200 of them, the messages became part of a larger gesture from a community remembering a difficult day and recognizing those who responded.
“Small gestures, like any little thing, matter,” Balbaugh said.
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