Every year, National Honors Society (NHS) members, except the officers who act as mentors, are required to create and carry out their own community service projects. The projects are allowed to affect anyone or anything in the world. Senior and NHS member, Rasmee Ky, is holding a clothing drive for the Children of the Andes Mountains as part of her service project. To donate clothes, you can drop off the donations in either the main office or any one of the house offices.
Ky explained that she came up with the idea of holding the clothing drive from an experience during her Summer Search trip to Peru where she handed out clothing. And so from that exposure, Ky believed that “[she] could help provide more clothes” by doing this drive.
During her trip, Ky described that she saw for herself how “many people living there lacked warm clothing” which she expressed that it was “heartbreaking to see young children with frostbite on their faces.”
Adding on to that thought, she said that she had spent overnight in a tent and noticed how extremely cold it was and barely slept through the night. As a result, she “cannot imagine how difficult it must be for those who live there” as they lack the proper clothing and shelter.
She continued on saying that there are “many people born with far fewer opportunities” and so Ky feels that it is “crucial for us to use those opportunities to help others.”
Additionally, she notices that there is a great deal of individuals who are born with “far fewer opportunities” than most people living in the United States. Therefore, Ky finds it “crucial for [them] to use those opportunities to help others.”
Ky’s project is one of many that help to demonstrate and represent the NHS core values which include leadership, scholarship, service, and character. All four qualities must be shown through the member’s project towards completion.
NHS advisor Paul Marques explained that by creating and carrying out their own projects, each member has a “special reason and self-driving cause” to complete their service projects. He expressed that the feeling of “just getting it done” is rather replaced with “let's get this done.”
Through creating these projects, students have had the opportunity to impact the community to a greater degree. Marques described some of the projects that members have done in the past which included some starting a Children’s Library in Boston’s Chinatown and another student establishing a Freshman Mentoring program.
With that in mind, he further explained that all of the qualities that represent NHS largely help to prepare members of the organization for the “real world.”
Ultimately, Ky believes that it does not matter where an individual comes from because “all of humanity needs to rely on each other to survive” through both giving and taking which are “essential parts of life that we all benefit from.” Furthermore, she added that characteristics such as borders or nationalities are insignificant especially when it comes to assisting others.
In the end, Ky hopes that there would be more MHS students and staff that could donate any winter clothes and help as much as possible. The clothes that are received from donors will help the children living in the Andes to bear the cold winter months as many of these children have “difficult lives that require them to wake up early for school” and “work with their families” during any extra time they have in order to help earn money. Even after leaving Malden High, Ky aspires to continue helping people in college and beyond.
