The National Honors Society (N.H.S.) is a national organization in the United States. For West Carrollton High School students, there is an option to join during junior or senior year. If they meet the guidelines of a 3.0 GPA, good attendance, and a good overall record they are likely to make it into the next stage. It guides students to do volunteer work all around the community or other communities near them. There is nothing rewarded, which is why the NHS supervisors go through a long process of asking other staff to decide whether the student should make it based on an anonymous selection. N.H.S. looks at what students have done in the past years of the student’s past community involvement and chooses. By the end of the members’ year, they should have completed somewhere between fifty and sixty hours worth of community service.

Every school year there are over one million students participating in N.H.S. It is a very life-changing experience for anyone who joins. One student even commented that they had never heard of so many of the events going on in their own community until N.H.S. The advisors try to give as many opportunities to the members as possible. Activities in West Carrollton included: the Powder Puff game, Monster Mash, the N.H.S. Christmas party, and the Sleep O’Clock events coming up.

The Powder Puff game is around football season. It is hosted in the fall when girls are able to be players and guys are able to be cheerleaders. The host makes it available for all juniors and seniors in the school to each have a team of their own. The cheerleaders from both grades go up against each other during halftime with a dance routine of their own, wearing past cheerleader uniforms. Plus, all of the money made off of the entrance and playing fees went towards the West Carrollton scholarship. This scholarship is given to one senior every school year. This year, the Powder Puff game raised over five hundred dollars this past fall. The tickets only cost one dollar each. The entire stadium was packed with people from all over the community. 

The Monster Mash is an event typically held around the Halloween season for families to enjoy. The N.H.S. members host games for the kids to be able to play and get candy if they win, and they do sometimes let a little missed shot get by as a win here and there. Mailynn Dillon (NHS member) even mentions how the kids would come to her game repeatedly and play over and over again just because they liked it. There’s always music, pumpkins, and a hayride available to be done. This past year a martial arts group came out to do a couple of demonstrations as well and even let kids do a couple of kicks to a few inflatables. People of all ages dress up and continue to enjoy the event every year.

The N.H.S. Christmas party is hosted every year as well. Kids were able to meet Santa, watch the choir sing, play games, and do all sorts of activities. The clubs at the high school are able to create their own booth and come up with an activity for the kids to do. The student council, for example, works together to make a sugar cookie decorating booth. Even if the kids are messy, they still try their best to help them out. Some have mentioned how kids try to do it all on their own without the students’ help. It was said that over one hundred kids got toys after meeting Santa in the library this year, even if kids were impatient in line.

The National Honors Society is an organization that can introduce these events and picks their members. It is the students that create and put the effort into making such a great event. Without the students, there would be no way that all of these events could be decorated, kept in stock, or even cleaned up at the end. The ending of an event especially has helped out many of the event creators of other events. Some would take hours such as Pirate Packs for example. The amount of time it takes to prepare the pack varies greatly depending on the number of people willing to help. There are days where only five sign up and it takes an hour or more and there are days where they have over ten sign up and it gets done in less than half an hour. People change the course of events just by giving a little effort. Of course, the people showing up can get the reward of knowing they helped someone else in the community, which is the main reward for everything volunteer related.