Clover Park's National Honor Society Brings Thanksgiving to Needy Families

Clover Park High School’s National Honor Society is putting the giving in Thanksgiving.

As the holidays approached, the organization’s 30 members raised enough money to purchase turkey dinners – including the bird, mashed potatoes and stuffing – for 42 needy families with students at the high school.

But that wasn’t enough.

NHS members also decided to hold a food drive at the Grocery Outlet on Pacific Highway to feed the families for a few extra days.

“The students thought it was wonderful to feed them a meal, but that it would be even better to feed them for a week,” said NHS advisor Jennifer Dixon, Clover Park’s career counselor. “This was their idea, and they organized it.”

She gestured at the students bustling excitedly around the school’s old Attendance Office, unpacking bags that had just arrived from Safeway and the Grocery Outlet and stacking boxes of frozen pizza, bags of dinner rolls and containers of juice along the counter.

“I’m totally in awe of them,” she said.

Last week, NHS members sold “Turkey Bucks” in $1, $5 and $10 denominations at the Albertsons on Steilacoom Boulevard to purchase Thanksgiving dinners.

Clover Park’s guidance counselors selected the 42 families. The process was completed anonymously and the families picked up their dinners Tuesday during school.

“The Turkey Bucks bought the basics, but we wanted to give families more – food that will help them longer,” said NHS President Cinthia Vazquez, a senior.

Off the students went to the Grocery Outlet, where they stood outside for three-hour shifts from noon to 6 p.m. every day for a week. Their efforts netted $344 in monetary donations and food donations – cereal, boxed meals, snacks, sugar, even paper towels and some hygiene products.

“We were always hoping we would raise that much, but there are no guarantees,” she said.

Vazquez said that it wasn’t easy asking people to give in a rough economy, and that several shoppers said they would love to help, but just couldn’t afford to. But others were excited about the chance to give back and help their community.

“People wanted to do it,” she said. “Some of them said they had been there, too.”

Dixon said that she heard from several students that patrons were friendly, generous and went above and beyond to help. One of Grocery Outlet’s security guards donated a $50 gift card toward the cause.

“It gave me a great feeling,” she said. “It lifted my spirits as we head into the holiday season.”

Clover Park’s NHS has held Thanksgiving food drives the past few years, but last year, they were more limited in how far they could stretch a dollar by holding it at one location. This year, they were able to put their funds toward food from three different stores.

“We were really surprised when we saw how much food we could buy to feed families,” said NHS Vice President Ga-Young Jin, a senior. “It’s amazing.”