Luke Rector ‘28, Photo Editor
Every October we carry the Red Out tradition, a school-wide event where everyone wears red and donates to support the American Heart Association (AHA). The AHA fights and researches to find cures for heart attacks and strokes. All of this is a great cause, and the story behind why SLHS started doing their Red Out every year is just as great and inspiring.
SLHS’s former football coach Mark Thomas’ wife, Donna Thomas, sadly passed from a heart attack 16 years ago. Coach Thomas harnessed his grief and anguish to create Red Out, which raises money for the AHA because of the abrupt and tragic loss of Donna. During the 2025 Red Out over 4,000 dollars were raised, the total amount raised in the 16 years SLHS’ has been doing Red Out is over 71,000 dollars.
Money is raised by selling Red Out themed t-shirts (which are designed by students) and having NHS raise money at the Red Out football game, there is also the annual picture on the football field to raise support for the AHA.
The picture is one of the main events of Red Out. Students are pulled out of class near the end of the school day to stand out on the school’s football field. They stand in a variety of patterns which variety from year to year, typically having seniors as the main focus. Jackie Cope, SLHS’ librarian and a major force behind the Red Out said: “Usually we try to go off the T-shirt for some kind of inspiration. We talk to our members of NHS who are also in marching band… and with our officers. We sketch out a couple patterns and then we just vote on which idea we think will work well [that] year.”
Since then, SLHS has held a variety of events and football games to commemorate her life. Mark and his daughter have talked about Donna’s and what Red Out means to themselves every year and why it is so special. They talk about how Red Out has helped them move past grief, give the AHA additional prominence, and bring the South Lyon community together.
Donna’s legacy lives on through what SLHS has done and continues to do. Red Out is helping keep those like Donna alive and comfortable by helping them detect their issues earlier, and helping to save those like Donna who had undetected heart problems.
A lot of work has to be done in order for the Red Out to run smoothly. SLHS’ process is difficult but worthwhile to make the event as popular as it is, Cope said: “We have to contact Mr.Teagan to see what day he [can] set aside for the Red Out game…and then we get our committee to advertise for Red Out. We have the Red Out committee puts up all the tiers to sell shirts during the week of Red Out, we have posters made by the committee to advertise the whole thing…[The] Community Choice Credit union is the one sponsoring, so they pay for the t-shirts to be made so all money can go to the AHA.” It is a long process full of many moving parts that all need to work together to make the Red Out happen, despite this challenging process the Red Out went off without any issues.
This year’s Red Out was the 16th anniversary of the event, and students were thrilled to participate once again. A large majority of students wore red and participated in the photo and went to the annual football game. Support and motivation for the event from students were at an all time high this year, Sophomore Lucia Bohil said: “I wore one of the designs that I liked from last year and I would definitely say I had a greater school spirit during the Red Out.”
Mr. James Brennan, SLHS’ principal, is proud of the Red Out and how it has impacted other schools. He said, “Now it’s a big thing, almost everybody has a Red Out and we were the first one to do it.” SLHS’ pride and kindness inspired other schools to do their own version of Red Out.
Red Out has been adopted by many other nearby schools, and it has impacted more than just our student body. It is helping people all over our community and helping raise awareness for the AHA. Students and parents are raising money to help people, and they all have done so much for the South Lyon community.
Since 2009, the Red Out has been a staple of SLHS’ cultures. Brennan said, “It’s another thing we do now, we’re never not going to do Red Out.” We have been doing this event for almost 20 years, it has been a wonderful school tradition for seniors and freshmen alike. It is a day where we can all work together, along with The American Heart Association, to fight against heart disease.
Lyon Life 