State convention a positive experience
By Carla Halvorson
2013 State National Honor Society president
This year’s Maine National Honor Society state convention was held March 7-8. The MNHS executive committee selected “Character: The Great Climb” as our theme. To correspond with our theme, we selected “Feed the Community, Feed the World” as our state service project. National Honor Society chapters from all over the state of Maine collected canned foods for local food banks and hosted dinners for their communities.
Statewide, we partnered with Stop Hunger Now to feed the world. We set a goal to raise enough money to package 10,000 meals that were to be shipped to Haiti, Nicaragua and Somalia. Each school did quarter drives and other fundraisers to buy meals that cost 25 cents each. At convention, we packaged 10,314 meals and had raised enough money to donate over $1,500 to the Stop Hunger Now organization. I was thrilled with how well received and successful our state project was this year.
To kick off the convention, we held a banquet at Jeff’s Catering Banquet and Convention Center in Brewer. Here, we heard from keynote speaker Steve Coleman and had a delicious meal. Mr. Coleman spoke on the topic of overcoming obstacles, despite physical challenges. He did a wonderful job and I believe everyone learned something new about disabilities and overcoming them to reach one’s full potential.
On Friday, March 8, about 450 students from schools across Maine traveled to the University of Maine for our convention. We were very lucky this year to have Mr. Bill Sanders, a representative from Rachel’s Challenge, as our convention keynote speaker. He spoke about how Rachel, the first victim of the Columbine High School tragedy, used acts of kindness in her daily life. Again, Rachel’s story touched hundreds of lives, and in many instances inspired schools to begin their own “chain reactions of kindness and compassion.”
This year’s workshops were comprised of activities aimed to inspire students to improve their character. We had presentations by Mountain Valley’s civil rights team and life coach Tony Solis. Students had the opportunity to take part in the packaging of thousands of meals for Stop Hunger Now and create an “Acts of Kindness” chain that would have stretched all the way around Orono’s massive Hauck Auditorium. We also had the unique experience of writing letters to soldiers deployed to Afghanistan. Through Savannah’s Soldiers, an organization started by an 11-year-old girl from Florida, each NHS member was able to write a soldier a special thank you for all his/her hard work and dedication. Students enjoyed this activity and some even brought the Savannah’s Soldiers concept back to their own school to take part in the project.
Overall, I believe this year’s convention was a huge success. The feedback was very positive and we received many compliments about uniting fun and character building. I think part of the convention’s success is the fact that students were participating in activities they knew were going to impact someone’s life in a positive manner. When people do acts of kindness to help brighten another’s day, we not only help others; we also enrich our lives.
