Twice a year the Stillwater National Honors Society holds a Coffee House in the auditorium to connect the community and help those in need.

In past years, the Coffee House was held in the Black Box, because the crowd would fit in a smaller space. In more recent years, the fundraiser has grown so big that the Black Box has been too small to contain the community that has come to support the cause. During the lockdown in 2020, the leadership for the Coffee House turned to a virtual platform and held an online showcase that was open to the whole community.

The teacher adviser for the National Honor Society, Becky Mazzara said she always finds that all the kids got so much more connected, not only in NHS, but in the school community. The showcase creates such a connectedness for all the kids involved, that it was just so sad to possibly not have it.

The NHS is a group of students with a GPA of 3.75 or higher who complete acts of community service throughout the year. In order to stay in NHS, students are required to complete 10 hours of community service a year, and a Coffee House is a great way to get their hours.

Some ways that the students get their community service hours in could be “Making paper flowers and hanging them up on the walls, soundcheck, recruiting the talents, and assisting with auditions,” Mazzara said. Due to the pandemic, the historically live auditions had to turn into virtual ones. Some other ways to have NHS students help with the coffee house are “Making the programs, ordering tickets, and more decorating,”  Mazzara added.

Every year, there is a specific student leader who really takes charge and the senior leader for Coffee House takes in an apprentice to take over for them when they are gone. Senior office Maddie Motez is the in charge of the showcase and she took in Sophia Bakke as heir to the Coffee House throne. The senior leader really leads the student’s power and has a say on all of the large decisions that need to be made.

Every year there are many amazing acts that come to perform in the Coffee House: Hannah Doyle performing for her last time her senior year, after doing every Coffee House since freshman year; Brea Davis singing ‘Chasing Payments’; and Mr. Weaver singing an original silly song is a time-honored tradition in Stillwater.

“I just help organize, I love music, and I’m a part of other music groups in the high school, which just means so much to see so many people come together,  have fun and show their talents, and watch everything grow,” Bakke said.