Most students lose touch with their teachers after graduation, but not in the case of Mr. Smith, a physics teacher at the Lindenhurst High School. For twenty years, Mr. Smith openly invites all of his students, including his past ones, to McDonalds every Thanksgiving morning.

Mr. Smith’s breakfast is at the same location each year, and has been for the past twenty years, the McDonalds on Sunrise Highway in Lindenhurst. 

Every year, alumni from the graduating years of 2000 to 2018 attend the breakfast. Nicolina Sottile, a current student of Mr. Smith at the Lindenhurst High School, says, “It was beautiful seeing people from his first class talk to his current students. This one man is what brought all these people together and celebrate a such an important day.”

Twenty years ago on the day before Thanksgiving, Mr. Smith walked outside of his classroom and a group of students had asked him what he was doing for breakfast on Thanksgiving. 

His students had invited Mr. Smith, along with other teachers, to McDonalds for breakfast. Mr. Smith had decided to go and he said, “we get there and winds up I’m the only teacher that showed up. We sat around and talked and said what we were thankful for that year.” 

When it was time for everyone to leave, they had decided to do this every year, “and we actually did. The first few years was touch-and-go since there was no social media so you had to trust that other people would be there but every year kids show up” says Mr. Smith.

Mr. Smith had faith that his former students would show up…and they did exactly that!

As the years went on and Mr. Smith taught more and more students, the group at the famous McDonalds breakfast continued to grow. The circle in which everyone sat and said what they were thankful for grew in size until nearly the whole building was filled with alumni, ranging in ages from seventeen and eighteen to thirty-seven.

Past students from all years would show up, sometimes they would even bring their kids!

The participants of this breakfast are so dedicated, it is shown through how one year, the McDonalds was dealing with renovations. All of the alumni still showed up and they all sat outside in lawn chairs , talking about what they are thankful for.

Mr. Smith was able to shape his students minds when they were in his class, but he also greatly impacted their lives after high school. He was able to watch these individuals grow and become adults, the people they are today. 

This breakfast means a lot to Mr. Smith, it reminds him of how important he is in the lives of his students, especially as they grow older. Mr. Smith says, “I’m just so blessed, so lucky to have all these children who have now become adults and are still in my life and it’s absolutely wonderful.”

Mr. Smith’s breakfast is a beautiful example of how much teachers have an impact on their students’ education, along with their lives. This also emphasizes how even the smallest acts of people can cause a wave of feeling and emotion.