Throughout the entire month of February, the National Honors Society of RV ran a number of events that support different organizations and charities around the community. NHS sends out various posts to its members, who are able and willing to contribute to specific helpful causes.

“We try to encourage different ways that they can welcome the community,” said President of NHS, senior Brinda Patel. 

Mrs. Maira, one of the advisors of NHS, states, “All of our members must do a ten hour service project, and every single member has taken on something that is close to them.” This format of the club is important to ensure that the ideas of service from each of the 150 members of NHS are utilized. 

“Especially when someone’s really passionate about an idea, it’s great to have the other 150 people within the club as a whole to come together and unite behind that one thing,” said senior Ryan Maggs, Vice President of NHS. 

Just one of the national non-profit organizations that an NHS member has partnered with for a service project this past month is the Alicia Rose Victorious Foundation (ARVF). The ARVF’s purpose is to provide programs and activities for children and teens receiving treatment for cancer and other life-threatening illnesses. The trusted foundation has accomplished many things through NHS, including assembling Teen Kits for teens in the program.

“There are gift cards, [hand-crafted] cards, socks, markers and even things like lip balm,” said Patel. 

A separate service project that the NHS members have focused on is collecting care packages for the homeless in the community.

“We’re just collecting clothes, gloves, socks, even blankets, backpacks and things like that. Also, (collecting) snacks, masks, hand sanitizers, and toys,” said Patel on the contents of the packages. NHS members have collected these items and have put together the care packages, which are then turned in at various sites to be transported to the hands of the homeless. 

NHS service includes volunteer labor or yard work around the community; an especially valued principle during this icy February.

“Each month we offer yard work opportunities, which is just members going out to their neighbors and volunteering their time,” said Maggs. He provides an example of such volunteer work, adding, “This month when it snowed, I walked over to my neighbor’s house and I said, ‘Hey, I can shovel your driveway for you, free of charge, as a generous offer.'” 

NHS members also mobilized to create and collect cards for Virtua healthcare workers of the Mt. Holly Virtua Hospital. The purpose of these cards is to “Thank the healthcare workers for the great deeds they have done and for all of the time they have had to sacrifice,” according to Maggs. The cards brought positivity to the healthcare associates at Virtua as they worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic to keep the community healthy.

NHS also supported students here at RV throughout the pandemic. The rise of failing grades has caused some alarm among faculty and administration, and NHS provides an important tutoring service to help struggling students.

“Something else that has picked up in the month of February is tutoring,” said Maira, “so NHS has a tutoring chair specifically, and there are a variety of ways that students can tutor.” As schools leap into the second half of their hybrid/virtual year, many members of NHS have made it their goal to provide free tutoring for students who need it. “[NHS members] have been tutoring through Google calendar invites, over…video meets, FaceTime, some even tutor siblings; that is also something that is always ongoing,” said Maira. 

NHS has been committed to numerous efforts that have had a positive effect on the community throughout this difficult winter.

“We are in the process of planning for March,” said Patel. NHS gives its members plenty of time to complete their service projects to the best of their ability, so planning for the next month is always vital. Patel indicates that service time for members in March will coincide with the fact that March is Women’s History Month. Furthermore, NHS’s volunteer yard work will continue as we head into warmer weather and hopefully a little sunshine.