Starting this school year, the National Honor Society (NHS) is taking on 200+ members in the community, which is said to result in bigger and better food drives, blood drives and other community events. Members of NHS are concerned that they will not be able to get their hours in with so many signing up or they will not be able to meet all of their requirements for the year.
Members need to meet the four pillars of the NHS to stay in yearly. To meet the service pillar, people need to get at least two hours of sponsored volunteering. Members are asking if there will be enough spots for everyone to get that time. In the case that someone tries to sign up too late, they would not be able to volunteer.
Officers reassure that “we also try to provide opportunities to let them make up those hours if something happened,” senior Cameron Kenady said. NHS students might miss out on one event, but they will have other opportunities to help out their community.
Not only that, but members have to hold up to the other three pillars by attending monthly meetings, getting good grades and showing character.
“It’s one thing to meet the requirements, but then it’s another thing to actually join and be a part of it and meet your requirements,” senior Cameron Kenady said.
People join the NHS as a commitment to grow their leadership skills, help out the community and stay organized. People will stay in if they have kept up with all of these items and not been slacking.
The organization has decided to keep the amount of officers the same despite the increase in members, meaning a lot more responsibility and leadership from leaders, but officers explain that everything is under control.
“There’s a lot more people stepping up that are members to bring forward events that they’re interested in, they want to run,” senior Aidan Uglem said. While these will not be NHS sponsored hours being run by other members, they will be another opportunity for members to get their hours in and support the community.
Leaders of the organization are putting together new events and making previous events bigger to increase volunteer attendance. Past experiences have included Coffee House, which has been running for 20 years and EL Scream, running for three years.
There has been talk of starting, “a bingo night at Boutwells” – senior, Cameron Kenady said, and Robert Manning has talked about volunteering at the ice castles downtown. Cam also brought up the inclusion of food drives into the past big events. Having so many volunteer opportunities will allow the NHS members to get their sponsored hours and reach new parts of the area.
The community will grow and strengthen from having more NHS members. Thanks to officers and leaders in the organization, they can form more diverse and helpful events to benefit the Stillwater community. Members can also get plenty of hour with new and bigger opportunities on the horizons.
