While students are looking forward to the upcoming summer break, The Crow’s Nest asked 15 students and three teachers about their 2025 Thanksgiving break. In the fall, Danville High School students found themselves with an extra-long break for the Thanksgiving holiday. In the past, the district has given students school off on the day before and after Thanksgiving, which gives a total of three days off of school. However, this year, students had a full five days of no school.
During this period, one thing that students enjoyed was being able to see family. While some students, such as Nina Mountjoy, stayed in town with immediate family members, other students saw more extended family. Avery Dunn, a junior, saw two aunts and one uncle. Gavin Walker, a senior, mentioned that he “saw at least 100 family members.”
Some members of the DHS community, such as senior Alyssa Dilbeck, traveled far and wide to see their family.
“I went to Georgia and saw my grandparents; I saw both sides of my family. [I don’t see them] that often, only like three times a year,” Dilbeck said.
Caleb Wetmore, the engineering teacher at DHS, also crossed state lines to see some family.
“I went to Michigan with my family, and we went to Frankenbooth and to Bronner’s Christmas Store. [I visited] my sister-in-law, brother-in-law and two nieces who live there in mid-Michigan, right next to Lansing. I went hunting with my brother-in-law, and we were successful. I drove back in the snow and did not go off the road, so that was [similarly] successful,” Wetmore said.
In classic Thanksgiving fashion, lots of great food was eaten over the break. Some favorites include the classics such as turkey and ham, though for vegetarians like Sadie Pusateri, a senior, macaroni and cheese was the preferred main dish.
Some well-loved classic sides included stuffing, deviled eggs, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, Burke’s Bakery rolls, cheese balls, caramelized onion dip, and pecan pie. Three people mentioned their love for various holiday casseroles, including broccoli casserole, green bean casserole and oyster casserole, though they acknowledged that these could be unpopular opinions.
“You know, I love green bean casserole. I don’t care if people say that it’s disgusting … it’s amazing,” senior Anna Watson said.
“Who doesn’t like warm shellfish?” Senior Lucy Evces said, sarcastically. “Creamy warm shellfish… You guys are sleeping on it: oyster casserole,” she continued.
One reportedly more popular holiday side than casseroles are a Danville classic: Burke’s Bakery rolls. Nina Mountjoy warned that they can be hard to get, as they often sell out. However, her word of advice on getting this hot commodity on Thanksgiving is “[to go] at 8 a.m. We went at 8 and the line was gone, and they had tons of rolls!”
However, not every food was loved. Some least favorites included pumpkin pie, with no one mentioning it as their favorite food, and Wetmore calling it his least favorite. Another hated food was an interesting take on mashed potatoes.
“I had cauliflower mashed potatoes and it was disgusting — the worst thing I’ve ever put in my mouth,” Alyssa Dilbeck said.
Eating food wasn’t the only thing the Danville High School students did over break. Many students balance work along with school and work at part-time jobs around town. One such student, Kira Crowe, a senior, worked at Subway over the break.
“I worked four days there over break … It was a lot busier, especially on Black Friday,” Crowe said. “My job has two parts. One part, I’m actually doing stuff in the store, you know, preparing orders and serving customers, things like that. But the other half is administration work. So I do things like recruiting applicants, pulling together food budgets for mostly our Michigan districts and other various things,” said Crowe.
Another student working over Thanksgiving break was senior Georgie Farmer, who is the executive editor for The Crow’s Nest.
“I worked Black Friday at Walmart, which was really scary,” Farmer said. “I had customers take stuff out of my cart. I had people throw stuff on the ground.”.
Another senior who worked over break is Rae Stinnett, who works at a daycare. However, she had an opposite experience regarding Black Friday.
“It was less busy than usual … We tried to make [Thanksgiving crafts with the kids]; they made little hand turkeys. Some of them were cute, but most of them just spilled glue all over them, [which is] unfortunate,” Stinnett said.
Students at DHS had lots of fun doing other activities as well. One student, Kaiden Earle, a junior, spent time acting in a student short film. Another student, Gavin Walker, a senior, said his favorite part of the break was seeing the Dallas Cowboys beat the Kansas City Chiefs.
DHS seniors such as Anna Watson and Kira Crowe also spent their extended break working on their college preparation.
“Oh gosh, I applied to Xavier, Air Force Academy, West Point, University of Cincinnati, UK, Bellarmine [and] Western. I got all of them submitted, so that was great,” Watson said.
“On Monday I [visited] Thomas More’s campus in Florence. The campus wasn’t my favorite, but it was certainly better than some other colleges I’ve seen,” said Crowe.
Between the travel, work, food and family, Danville students had a wonderful time over the extended break. And with summer break coming up, students are certain to have just as much fun.
