CARIBOU, Maine — Joining the National Honor Society takes commitment, dedication and drive, but the resulting experiences and camaraderie make it a worthwhile part of high school for those who are invited to join.
“One of the things about being in the National Honor Society that I love is the opportunities I’m exposed to,” said Shyanne Barnes, vice president of the Caribou Chapter of the National Honor Society. “You get to make a positive impact on your community and your school — and you really get a chance to help out.
Caribou’s NHS students, like their counterparts across the country, fundraise and volunteer for different charities throughout the year, and each activity brings a new understanding of the greater world around them.
But before students don the robes and stoles of NHS members, they have to apply.
“It’s not just grades,” clarified member Chaya Karunasiri.
Students must have at least a grade point average of 88 to be elegible for membership, and that’s just the start.
“It’s also your community service hours and the activities you do at school — music, art, Student Council, not just sports,” explained Caribou’s NHS President Samantha Camy.
Members of the NHS are also motivated members of their communities by doing things like volunteering and participating in religious organizations, and other things that help create a well-rounded young adult.
As outgoing president of the Caribou chapter, Camy does have a bit of advice to ninth-graders and tenth-graders wishing to join NHS as upperclassmen: “You want to make sure you’re genuine,” she said. “Act like who you are, and if you deserve to be in NHS, you will be.”
Those wishing to join should also keep in mind that joining the NHS is not for the apathetic.
Nine-year adviser to Caribou’s NHS chapter Kenneth Atcheson will be the first to admit that he keeps NHS members bustling — with respect to their obligations as upperclassmen.
“Certain months are really very busy,” he said. “The Viking Card Program, the Samaritans’ Purse in November, the Food Drive at Christmas time for the Bread of Life Soup Kitchen — these are all very good things they work on.”
Atcheson gestured to the back of his classroom, where a cart was piled high with baking supplies. It’s the current undertaking by NHS members, led by the juniors, and they will be creating mason jars filled with everything needed to make cookie dough. The organization will then gift those jars of cookie dough to teachers as a sign of appreciation.
While the cookie dough project is fun and light hearted, some of Caribou’s NHS projects deal with very serious issues like a recent fundraiser for the Muscular Dystrophy Association of Maine. Their goal for the undertaking was to raise $600.
They exceeded their goal by $200.
“That is great,” said Delaney Williams, NHS secretary and two-year chair of the fundraiser. “That was my favorite part — seeing how much everyone cares to bring in money, and we raised enough to send one of the kids to camp,” she said with a big smile. “That makes us feel good.”
Another serious topic the group aimed to assist this year was the Wounded Warriors Project.
Barnes explained that the NHS took up the cause on a regional level at the suggestion of a local person in Fort Kent.
“I guess a lot of local community members were actually wounded warriors who fought for our country and came back not the same — physically and mentally,” Barnes described. “All soldiers that have risked their lives, some came back with traumatic disabilities or they’ve been affected, and our fundraiser gives money to those who (fought) to protect us.”
In Caribou, the group raised over $400 to help a veteran (or veterans) with their bills.
As Williams pointed out, however, fundraisers go beyond the NHS members and really get the school involved as a whole.
While NHS members have had great success involving their peers and greater community into some of their fund-raising projects, Atcheson acknowledged that members do have lives outside of NHS — sports, church, and that little thing called “academics.”
“They can’t do everything, and we’ve had to turn some things down,” he said. “There are so many causes, and there’s only so many things I can have them do.”
But one event NHS looks forward to year after year is volunteering to help out at the Special Olympics.
“It’s just one of those amazing opportunities NHS allows us to be a part of,” Barnes said. “It’s almost self-rewarding, because you get to see these people who are just so happy and so involved …”
“It’s cold outside, and they’ll be running in tank tops,” Camy interjected excitedly, “and you’ll feel cold, but all of a sudden you don’t feel cold anymore because they don’t even care — they’ll be running in tank tops!” she described with a warm smile.
Neither Barnes, Camy, Karunasiri nor Williams could say enough positive things about volunteering, so their adviser put the event into perspective.
“The vast majority of the NHS members have accomplished so much — they’ve received accolades and awards and applause for various things, academic, scholastic, athletic, music, art, drama — and at (the Special Olympics), they’re not the ones on center stage,” he described. “It’s individuals who sometimes haven’t received applause or the adoration … and the light in their faces of crossing their finish line and having one of these NHS kids say ‘congratulations! We’ll take you to get your award!’ … it’s truly remarkable to watch the light come into their faces, to see someone is paying attention to them, someone is applauding them, it’s their day,” Atcheson explained.
“We’re the workers and we get the great privilege of being the people who get to cheer them on, and it’s truly a privilege to watch those individuals and how much that day means,” he added. “These (NHS members) get awards and scholarships, and ribbons and stoles and sashes — but those people, that may be the one day all year where they truly get to shine.”
While volunteering at the Special Olympics is a tremendously positive experience for the NHS members, it’s impact is larger than a single day.
“I think with everything we do, like the Special Olympics and the MDA drive, it makes us more open minded to all the things around us we don’t notice when we’re in high school,” Williams described. “We just go to school, do our sports, go home, but we don’t see all the other things going on around us that we do see through NHS.”
That expanded perspective is something that Williams’ peers have experienced as well.
“I think it builds our compassion toward others and really encourages us to be a role model to anyone and everyone who’s around us, and make an impact,” Barnes said.
Compassion is important to carry forward in life, and Atcheson has seen his former NHS students carry it well into their adult lives.
“In general, we have people who’ve gone to college and are now out of college, and realize that they need to give back to their community,” Atcheson said with a hint of pride in his voice. “That’s an important attribute, and a I think NHS fosters that along with other organizations in Caribou, like athletics and academics; there’s a strong community service component in all of those things.”
Going forward, Caribou’s NHS members carry that understanding of how they can impact their communities.
“It becomes real to them. They don’t just send checks — they see these people, they experience what this is like,” Atcheson said, emphasizing the importance of the annual trip to the Soup Kitchen to connect with a different environment that perhaps some of the students hadn’t been exposed to “and to see that the real world is not necessarily as kind and loving and secure as Caribou High School,” Atcheson added realistically.
While the NHS members grow through the experiences they’re afforded throughout the year, organizing such undertakings can mean lots of extra hours after school, in addition to weekly Friday-morning meetings.
Spending so much time together, forming friendships is almost unavoidable.
“We spend a lot of time together, so it’s really hard not to become a really close group of friends,” Camy said. “Valentine’s Day, we have the Carnation Sale and we’re in here from 3 p.m. to like 6 p.m. all tying carnations while listening to music, eating pizza … and watching Mr. Atcheson dance,” she said, joking with her adviser.
Spending time with NHS members here in Caribou, regionally and statewide, there are plenty of new people to meet and new friends to make.
That’s actually one of Karunasiri’s favorite parts of being an NHS member.
“I like the people I get to meet from my chapter and from other chapters, people I wouldn’t have talked to otherwise but you just get put in a random group with people,” she said. “It’s just the friends you get to make.”
Camy’s favorite part being Caribou’s NHS president was observing just how much the juniors have changed in the course of a year, like watching some shy students become bold enough to stand up in front of the group and make a speech. “It’s interesting to see how people grow, and with NHS you grow through the course of your year,” she added.
For Atcheson, he’s seen plenty of changes in this year’s graduating group of NHS seniors — like Camy, Barnes, Karunasiri and Williams.
“They’ve grown into articulate, well organized leaders that I trust implicitly,” he emphasized. “If they decide someone is in charge, all I have to do is ask a few questions … I know it’s going to be done,” the adviser added. “I just have to sit back and watch, and that for me is the most enjoyable … seeing them as the adults they are, I’m very, very proud of them.”
While graduation is looming, their year isn’t over quite and Caribou’s NHS chapter still has some spectacularly fun events on the horizon — including Academic Night.
“The NHS likes to recognize the students at CHS by hosting Academic Night in the beginning of June,” Camy said. “That highlights all the students who’ve received Highest Honors and Honors in the past year, and we do an Ice Cream Social for the parents and the students.”
One very fun tradition the NHS chapter upholds is the annual Senior Breakfast.
“The juniors cook up all this breakfast food — whatever (seniors) want,” Camy described.
The breakfast is, of course, a way of the juniors honoring their graduating seniors … and signaling that it’s their time to take over NHS.
“Breakfast” of course just determines the time the meal will be cooked — because the requested foods are definitely not the average menu.
Camy requested rolls (like dinner rolls), Karunasiri wants movie theater popcorn with extra butter, Barnes will be having cinnamon rolls and Williams requested a Vanilla Chai from Dunkin’ Donuts.
“It feels like it was just the other day we were cooking breakfast for the seniors — but now we’re going to be the ones eating it!” Karunasiri said.
Asking the women how fast the past year went, they gave a resounding “Oh my gosh — fast!” in seemingly scripted unison.
“I felt like freshman through junior year was so slow compared to senior year,” Camy commented, mentioning that she’s not wild about not being president anymore.
But while CHS has prepared them for the next level, NHS has taught them how to carry themselves forward.
“It teaches you how to hold yourself, and gives you a sense of respect for yourself and a sense of respect for others,” Camy said. “Also we do a lot of community service hours so if you’ve been doing it for two years, you’re going to want to keep doing that for the rest of your life.”
