Staff photo / Brandon Cantwell Hubbard High School senior Mara Vargo paints an ornament on the windows of the city of Hubbard’s administration building Wednesday morning.

HUBBARD — While other students use Thanksgiving break to relish the time away from the grind of the school year, several Hubbard High School students were out and about with their art teacher, giving some of the community’s buildings a holiday makeover.

The students — Ayla Hannon, Mara Vargo and Adora Hale, along with art teacher Josh MacMillan — were up bright and early Wednesday morning spending two hours at Burlews, the community’s new grocery store, and the Eagle Grille and Tavern. They spent most of their time at the City of Hubbard’s administration building.

The students painted the windows of the businesses and city hall with Christmas-themed messages.

With the project entering its sixth year, MacMillan said they were incorporating a new aspect in the form of 3-D cutouts, dedicated to two families, the Edenfields and Beasleys.

“The Edenfields of Canfield have been a big part of us, in terms of my teaching and my coaching here in the community. We’ve tried to help with the idea of ‘Choose Joy,'” MacMillan said. “They’re just family friends of ours, and we’ve done everything we can to try and help everybody. What we say is ‘Remember their daughter, Melina,’ who we still talk about as (still being) here.”

MacMillan said he was introduced to the Beasleys in September, a family with a child, 4-year-old Palmer, who has epilepsy.

MacMillan, who coaches girls’ soccer at the high school, worked with Palmer’s family to make her the star of a regular-season game against Niles, during which she was made an honorary captain and was present during the coin flip.

She presented the Niles team with purple captains’ bands — the color symbolizing solitude and the struggles people with epilepsy face.

“They want to bring awareness to epilepsy, so we made two giant five-by-five cutouts and we made each of their family gnomes,” MacMillan said. “The all-purple family is Palmer’s, and the other one with the assorted colors is the Edenfields.”

Meghan, Palmer’s mother, said MacMillan informed her of the idea.

Meghan said they were touched by the community’s efforts, recalling the amount of support the family has received — between the district’s art classes painting an Ohio Department of Transportation plow that will be used in the winter and the soccer game.

“Palmer and her sister, Harper, are going to be so excited when they drive by (the city building),” Meghan said. “It’s another way to bring attention to the Purple for Palmer cause and epilepsy, which has been highly successful because of the community.”

Hale, the lone junior amongst the trio whose other people were seniors, said it felt good to get out of the house and have the ability to do something other than lie in bed.

“I remember just seeing the windows always being painted, and it’s just cool that I finally get to do that now,” Hale said. “I love art.”

Mayor Ben Kyle, who reached out to the school during the project’s second year and requested that they paint the city building’s windows, said he wanted to involve the school’s art department in holiday celebrations with the community.

“It’s a fantastic thing because our Christmas parade, which happens the first Saturday in December, drives right by this location, and a lot of people gather here,” Kyle said. “It becomes a focal point for so many members of the community from the young kids to their grandparents — everybody gathers and is able to see the fantastic work that these students can do.”