In the National Honor Society (NHS), one of the guiding principles, or pillars, is service, to benefit the community in a positive way. At Jefferson, the NHS chapter (known as the Challenger chapter, in honor of the NASA Challenger Space Shuttle) promotes service through hosting various projects, such as the Holiday Service Project that the NHS officers held on Wednesday, Dec. 19 during 8th Period.

In the weeks leading up to the Service Project, a box was set up for the donation of books of all kinds – from Ramona and Her Mother to A Single Shard, all for elementary school students, including Weyanoke Elementary School.

“As an organization, our goal is to institute as many service events in school as we possibly can throughout the school year, and this was our first,” NHS President Rithvik Gundlapalli said. “The donated books will be given to a local elementary school’s library so that more resources can be available for the students’ education and recreational needs.”

In addition, bookmarks of various designs were created, using markers to make fun illustrations to encourage students to read, which will be laminated over Winter Break by NHS officers, and then given to elementary school libraries to give to students to encourage them to read.

“The bookmarks were a fun addition to this project, and we hope the fun and colorful bookmarks will encourage students will continue to read,” Gundlapalli said.

However, as this was a new event, it was not able to be as widespread throughout TJ.

“This is a new event that NHS hasn’t done in recent years. Though it was not spread completely this year, we hope more students will join the cause in future years,” Gundlapalli said.

Yet, at the end of the event, there were many books collected, and bookmarks made, all of which will be donated to elementary schools in January.

“I’m pretty proud of our work, considering we got over 30 books and 50 plus bookmarks,” Gundlapalli said.