High school custodians are often unappreciated and overlooked.
Just think about, a small group of individuals are responsible for cleaning up all the mess high school students make and fixing almost every little thing that breaks in the school, such as electrical outlets and toilets.
For anyone who has been a teenager, you know that's a lot of mess and things needing to be fixed. If it wasn't for these underpaid janitors, high schools would be filled with food stains, paper towels, and filthy floors.
As dozens of kids from Garden City High School in Michigan wrapped presents for their favorite teachers, a group of kids took the time to buy a special present for one of the most hardworking staff in their school: the janitor.
On Dec. 21, Kenna Hermanson, Andrew Cortes, Summer Dyer and Lexi Horvath presented custodian Brian Junk with a Christmas gift that got thousands of people on the internet talking.
Brian has been working at the school for nearly eight years, and is reportedly loved by many students and staff.
"Brian always goes above and beyond in our school. His approach is an excellent example of one person having an enormous impact on school culture," Principal Derek Fisher said.
Their emotional, surprise video has been viewed more than 200,000 times on Facebook.
Watch it for yourself!
High school student Kenna Hermanson posted this sweet message alongside the video: "So happy we were able to do this for one of the sweetest people I know, the janitor at our school, Brian! He's always putting a smile on everyone's faces during school & as a Christmas gift a bunch of people pitched in to buy him some new shoes 😊 thank you for everything you do & making the school day more enjoyable for everyoneâ¤ï¸ Merry Christmas."
In the video, Andrew presents the gift in the hallway and says, "This is for you, you always go above and beyond for us, and you're always happy and we just wanted to give you something."
"You guys are gonna make me cry," Brian says as he hugs the students and unwraps his present.
"Thank you! I need some really bad, too, look what I'm wearing," Brian laughs at the new work shoes, pointing to his pair of worn sneakers. "Thank you for your hard work," one student says.
"No, thank you for being you guys," Brian replies.
Brian starts his day at 4:45 a.m. and makes sure everything in the school is clean and running smoothly.
"There's never a boring day for me. I love my job," he said.
He sure is going to love it a lot more knowing that students appreciate all his hard work!