By Prisha Chakraborty
This year many clubs struggled to provide events and keep the public better informed and involved with community-based endeavors. Three clubs, the National Honor Society (NHS), Project Hope, and Arts.care, are working differently on providing events since most now need to be held online.
Recently, NHS hosted their first virtual food drive. “The food drive took place during January and is doing fairly well,” said senior Olivia Prevost, president of NHS. “The original goal was to raise $1000, although that was reached within the first week and a half, so it was bumped up to $2000. We are very excited that it turned out so well.”
Also, NHS students will be getting even busier because their tutoring program begins the first week of February.Tutors are now available and offering help to all students in a variety of subjects on Tuesdays to Fridays after school through Microsoft Teams.
As early as next month, another form of instruction will start. “We will be launching a Ted Talk-like Padlet for students who are uncomfortable with the tutoring sessions,” said Prevost. “With this, one of our subcommittees will be making videos for various subjects and posting them there for the entire student body to view.” Although only NHS members coordinate these events, anyone can use the provided services.
The humane and medical aid group Project Hope has hosted several events lately. “In the summer, we donated masks and made thank you cards for frontline workers at our local hospitals,” said Project Hope Officer Akshitha Viswanadhula.“During the beginning of this school year, we were able to organize a social media education indicative with the Phoenixville library for senior citizens. We understood that during these unprecedented times the senior citizen population might have a hard time keeping in touch with their family over the holidays, so we were able to help around 10 people navigate social media platforms. We also held food fundraisers which we plan on using to donate supplies to senior citizen homes.”
Now the team is hosting a drive, in which anyone can donate new or gently used school supplies. “We are currently working on a school supply drive that will help kids in low-income areas to do schoolwork since there are greater challenges during the pandemic,” said Viswanadhula.
If you interested to join them, the organization meets on Microsoft Teams every Thursday. The code to join is 2ybc36j, and their Remind is @gvhs-hope.
Using arts for fundraising, the Arts.care club held charitable events in the past year. The organization’s projects include Cards for Care, handmade cards sold for medical charity, and Masks for COVID, homemade masks donated to frontline medical staff and sold to raise money for the Chester County Food Bank.
The organization has been growing since last year. “The club is doing great so far,” said Arts.care co-founder junior Nadini Bhatt.“We have made and sold over 1000 masks, over 3500 cards, hosted 8-week art classes, and much more. We have raised over $15,000 so far and donated to Chester County Food Bank, CHOP, Shriners Hospital, US Navy, and more.”
More projects are on the way.
“We are going to continue one project from last year with the Chester County Food Bank - Boxes for Kindness,” said Bhatt. “We are going to decorate their food boxes to give them a lively spirit and to help encourage food donation amidst food insecurity in our county. We are looking to start projects involving little inspiring notes, crochet, and culinary arts soon.”
More information about the club can be founded on their website, arts.care. Anyone interested to join can contact either cofounders, Nadini Bhatt and Sahitya Suresh, by email or the club’s email, arts.carenonprofit@gmail.com.