An Act of
Service
By Eram’e Tost and
Kendall Marshall
Edward Rynearson, the principal at the Fifth Avenue High School in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, saw the future of an organization that would honor scholarship, while restoring service, leadership, and character in the young students of our nation. This program recognizes sophomore, junior, and senior high school students demonstrating a 3.5 GPA and higher, highlighting student’s academic success, community involvement, leadership skills, and overall high character. On March 1st, 1921 National Honors Society was born. Students in NHS must indicate traits from four pillars: Scholarship, Character, Leadership, and Service. Since 1921, there have been over thirteen hundred chapters installed with over ninety thousand members in high schools across the nation.
Forks High School’s National Honor Society chapter is actively making decisions exemplifying ways to follow the four pillars of NHS. Every first and third Tuesday of the month, the group meets during lunch to discuss ways to leave an impact in the community. For instance, in November NHS planned a Clothing Drive at the front of Forks High School. During this month, students organized when and where to hold the drive by gaining the principal’s permission to use the front of FHS, and contacting the local clothing bank. When reaching out to Ginger’s Closet, NHS members learned how they were in need of winter jackets, small and XL shirts, tennis shoes, and youth clothing In preparation for the event, students created flyers posting them around the school, Forks Outfitters, and on Fork’s community Facebook page. The drive was held Sunday, December third from 12-3 pm.
On the day of the drive, NHS arrived at the school at 11:30 am to prepare for the drive. Hand made signs were placed by the road helping advertise the drive. As time started to pass, cars began pulling up to the front of the school dropping off clothes. Students grabbed bags of clothes from the cars of community members, and passed out candy canes before sorting the items into categories. Almost halfway through the drive, multiple bags of clothes were prepped and ready to go to Ginger’s Closet. The group continued working, overwhelmed with joy at the amount of clothes donated. The goal was to create an event that would greatly benefit those of the community, and they accomplished that goal, thanks to the community. At the end of the drive there were over seventeen large black garbage bags filled with clothes, with at least seven or eight more boxes filled with items.
After school on December fourth, the President, Vice president, and Secretary of Fork’s NHS arrived at Ginger’s Closet with the donations from the community. Ginger’s Closet was extremely grateful and filled with gratitude over the amount of donations collected.
During the drive, Forks National Honors Society had the opportunity to demonstrate leadership, and service two of the traits from the four pillars students must display to be a member. Due to the immense success of this drive, another drive will hopefully be held in Spring. All members of Fork’s National Honors Society would like to extend their immense gratitude and a thank you to the community for participating and donating to the drive.
