Another Year Gone By

The 2011-2012 officers would like to express our gratitude to our advisers, our members, our school, and everyone who has contributed and helped the National Honor Society this year. We enjoyed it all, and we hope every one of you did too. This is the end of being part of this chapter for us, but for many of you, there is much to look forward to next year and the years after. We will remember that striving for scholarship, service, leadership, and character does not stop at high school. Continue to excel in all things, as we ourselves will put forth our best in college. Thank you. It was a pleasure being your 2011-2012 National Honor Society officers.

Recycling Over 2011-2012

 We would like to extend a HUGE thanks to everyone who has contributed to recycling at Thomas Jefferson. Over the course of this year, the NHS has collected, sorted, and scanned over 20,000 bottles and cans. Not only are we assisting post 9/11 veterans with disabilities through the Dream Recycle Rally, but we have been actively helping the environment when we choose to recycle these bottles instead of throwing them in the trash for landfills. At the same time, we get redeemable points for our school. These points will be used for fun things next year, so look forward to it!

An even bigger thanks is deserved by those who have stayed back on Tuesdays to help separate bottles and cans, sort them into bags, weigh them, and scan them. Of all those who have helped after school, I would especially like to thank Eman, Victoria, and Felicia, whom have volunteered almost every Tuesday. Each bag brought to the school is a bag of mystery, as the volunteers have discovered. They have suffered from finding underwear, cockroaches, incredibly stinky bottles, moldy bottles, and other unknowns that have been kept that way because it would have been better to not know.

The great number of bottles we have recycled is a testament to just how many bottles and cans we are using everyday. Hopefully, it has opened the eyes of many and been a motivator to become more sustainable. Use reusable beverage containers! What we've achieved with the recycling at Thomas Jefferson is evidence that through cooperation and action, we can do something huge that benefits the community. Imagine the possibilities for next year with even more members and organization!

Until next year!

Box Tops Project Conclusion

Over the past year, Thomas Jefferson has been collecting Box Tops to give to a school or institution that would benefit from them. We amassed a total of 1121 box tops!! After separating the expired ones, we had 1076 redeemable Box Tops, exchangeable for $107.60! Thank you to everyone who have collected Box Tops throughout the year and have even collected from friends and family.

 To determine who would get these Box Tops, we had a ballot in the beginning of the year. The winner was The Baptist Friendship House. However, the Baptist Friendship House stopped collecting Box Tops and started collecting Labels for Education instead. (We encourage you to collect these independently to help the wonderful work the Baptist Friendship House is doing.) We then decided to give our runner-up, Woodmere Elementary, our Box Tops after a phone call to them. On a recent phone call, Woodmere said they don't collect Box Tops. Although I'm not so sure how informed the Miss who spoke on the phone was on this matter, I chose to call Gretna Middle, our runner-runner-up. These Box Tops are not only a financial encouragement, but they are an academic encouragement as well. Gretna Middle made its way onto our ballot because they, like Woodmere Elementary, are a low-performing school, and they are a neighboring school. Gretna Middle was extremely grateful for our contribution.

I spoke to Ms. Woodruff, advisor to Gretna Middle's Builder's Club. She said, "We really appreciate this. Our Builder's Club has been cutting coupons and Box Tops so y'all are a really great help. Thank You!"

NHS Yearbook Picture

The NHS picture for the 2011-2012 yearbook will be taken on Wednesday March 28 at the beginning of lunch. Please be there! 

February Update

It's that time of the year again! Invitations were sent out and applications have been reviewed. The new members will be honored at the induction ceremony on Monday, March 5th. Induction is at 6 pm in the school gym. Come dressed in your Sunday's best!

The large influx of new members warrants a revised meeting schedule. We gave out schedules in our last meeting, but it is also to your right under "Pages". There will be separate meetings for new members and current members as the auditorium cannot accommodate all of us at the same time.
As the school year is fast coming to completion, we have modified the leadership offices of NHS for next year.Now, with such a large number of members, we have an even greater ability serve others. To improve efficiency, organization, and competency, we are adding more leadership positions. Henceforth, in addition to each officer, there will be an adviser--one for each office. Elections were held on Tuesday, and it is with great excitement that we introduce the NHS officers for the 2012-2013 school year:

President- Felicia Lemoine
Adviser to the President- Peter Nguyen
Vice President- Tyler Ritchie
Adviser to the Vice President- Matthew Do
Secretary- Nida Farhoud
Adviser to the Secretary-Kailyn Cook
Treasurer- Darchelle Nguyen
Adviser to the Treasurer- Fernanda Morales

We look forward to the next school year!