Helping Others In Need
April, 2005
Novi High School
students have come back from their party filled week of spring break,
and returned to their normal lives back home. For seniors, there is no
good description of a normal life as Prom dates, graduation plans, and
summer jobs have kept our minds occupied.
Yet, even with all of
the spring sports getting started and the never ending clubs and
activities going on, students have still been able to help out in and
out of the community.
Just this month, over
40 students from NHS joined forces with Habitat for Humanity to help
build a new home for a single mother of 5 children. At 8:00 am on a
beautiful Saturday morning, the teens got to work on the project in Pontiac. The volunteers were busy putting up aluminum siding, moving
walls, and clearing the area around the house.
Following the tsunami
in Western Asia, Student Council, which is one of the most active groups
in the school, donated over $5,000 to the Red Cross relief effort. They
also sponsored several blood drives throughout the year and encouraged
students 17 and older to donate blood for the Red Cross. Not bad for a
bunch of 17 year-old kids.
In today’s society,
it’s easy to forget how fortunate we are to live the way we do. With our
iPods and nice cars, it’s hard to imagine others who don’t have clean
water, a roof over their heads, or good food to eat. Those basic
amenities that we take for granted everyday here in Novi are a lot better than what
people living in some other countries have.
Need has no season,
and that’s one saying that many of the students at Novi High have grown
to recognize.
In June, a group of Teens from Faith Community
Presbyterian Church will pack their bags and head to Pensacola, Florida.
There they will spend 2 weeks helping rebuild homes that were damaged in
the hurricanes last year.
Why help
someone that you will most likely not see again? Some do it to make
themselves feel better while others are earning hours towards National
Honor Society requirements.
To me, one of the
best reasons to volunteer is to see the final product of what you have
helped support - the end result. My personal favorite reason is to see the smile you get when the work is done.
No, not the big emotional speech or teary eyes that you see on ABC's Home
Makeover Edition, but a genuine smile and thank you. That’s something
worth taking a few hours out of the week for and get out and do
something in the community.
You don’t even have
to build a house to be helping others. Taking 20 minutes to donate blood,
or even giving a dollar to the Salvation Army, can do wonders.
Students at Novi High
School are
helping and caring for others. From tsunami survivors to the less
fortunate people right here in our own community, Novi's kids find a way to help out.
Volunteer for what you can, donate what you can, and remember
that need has no season.
Novi High School Students in Pontiac, working
on a home for Habitat for
Humanity.
