Staff Writer

As the end of the year comes to a close, National Honor Society members find themselves scrambling to finish their last minute required group and individual community service hours. Well, not to worry, because there are still many places that are available, even for group hours.

A few excellent places to get individual hours are the Coppell Community Gardens (which offers double hours), Coppell Teen Court (which also offers double hours), Petsmart and the Coppell Public Library. If you wish to volunteer at the Coppell Community Gardens and Teen Court, all you must do is figure out the dates they are available and go there, without any prior training or notification. In order to volunteer at Petsmart and the Coppell Public Library, you must notify them ahead of time if you wish to volunteer there.

If you are in need of group hours (which are much harder to find and obtain than individual hours), you are in luck, because Christian Community Action (CCA) and Hearthstone Assisted Living are both in need of volunteers. Since these places are both open to everyone, they can be counted as group hours. If you are planning to volunteer at the CCA Resale store in Lewisville, then you do not need to tell them ahead of time of your arrival, but notice is required to volunteer at Hearthstone.

Remember, hours are due before the year is over, which is just around the corner. Sophomores need five group hours and 10 individual hours. Juniors need 10 group hours and 10 individual hours, and seniors need 15 group hours and 10 individual hours. Also, remember that extra group hours can roll over  into individual hours, but not the other way around.

To learn more about obtaining group hours at CCA and Hearthstone, click here and here.

The spring blood drive is next month, April 8. NHS members are to check Blackboard for updates and shadowing sign-up will be at the next NHS meeting, April 1st. Volunteers will be working sign-up tables during lunch the weeks after Spring Break.

Friday, April 23 from 5-9 pm is Denton Creek Elm.’s Sping Fling. Volunteers will be able to earn tickets for the carnival along with group hours when volunteering for this event.

Relay for Life, the first weekend in May, needs volunteers. Members can contact relayforlifecoppellvolunteers@gmail.com for more information and sign-up for a maximun of six group hours.

Remember that extra group hours can roll over to become individual hours, although individual hours can not count as group hours. Seniors need 15 group and 10 individual hours; juniors need 10 of each; and sophomore need 5 group and 10 individual hours. And don’t forget to pay dues -$10 in a sealed envelope with your name, ID number, 1st or 7th period class dropped into the NHS library box. The last NHS meeting was March 4th; upcoming meeting is April 1st.

Staff Writer

This week, the National Honor Society (NHS) and National Spanish Honor Society (NSHS) will both be holding their monthly meetings.

The NSHS meeting will be today at 4 p.m., and the morning meeting will be tomorrow at 8 a.m. The purpose of the meeting will be to notify members of the cancellation of the holiday social that was scheduled for this upcoming Saturday, and to also inform members of when service hour logs will be due.

The NHS meeting will be this Thursday at 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. The location of the meetings has been changed, as the morning meeting will be held in the Lecture Hall and the afternoon meeting will be in the auditorium. These locations will remain permanent throughout the rest of the year.

To learn more about the history of NSHS and NHS, click here and here.

Coppell High School’s National Honor Society admitted 150 new members this year to its Excalibur chapter, including 19 seniors, 12 juniors and 110 sophomores.

The Induction Ceremony, held last night, included the inductees, officers and many proud parents. Principal Brad Hunt opened the ceremony with a warm welcome, followed by the traditional lighting of the candles (a candle for each characteristic of scholarship, character, service and leadership) and an announcement of the candidates led by sponsor Jeb Puryear who handed each candidate a certificate of membership.

Applicants were required to have maintained a grade point average, or GPA, of 4.8 or higher to be considered for admittance and were required to submit a resume, essay and acquire three recommendations.

Puryear and officers spent a week narrowing down applicants and NHS’s traditional “tapping” was observed October 30. As the initial recognition into NHS, tapping consisted of senior and junior officers visiting classroom to “tap” new members and reward them with a congratulatory paper.

“I felt accomplished,” Junior inductee TH Hernandez said. “NHS is a very prestigious society so being tapped into meant a lot. I put great thought and effort into my resume, and being inducted into NHS showed me that my hard work paid off.”

Junior Alex Park had the honor of sharing the induction with his younger sister, sophomore Ashley Park.
“Getting inducted with my sister was great,” Park said. “It’s rare to share an experience like this with a sibling, and my parents were really proud of us both.”

Junior and one-year member Macaully Shumate expressed her excitement about the new generation of members.
“It’s pretty exciting that new people get to join because it’s a good group to be involved with,” Shumate said. “I enjoy being in it because it encourages me to do things for my community and work service hours.”

The ceremony concluded with the Pledge of the Society. A reception followed.

The society was created to recognize scholarship, character, service and leadership with the motto “noblesse oblige,” meaning that along power and prestige comes responsibility. NHS was established in 1921.

Original Video – More videos at TinyPic

Staff Writer

National Honor Society partnered once again with Carter BloodCare to organize the blood drive at CHS that took place in the south gym on Wednesday, Oct. 7. This was the first of two blood drives at the high school, the next to follow in spring.

NHS officers volunteered at the blood drive along with professionals from Carter BloodCare to host a successful drive.

Although students had the option to do walk-ins, most began signing up a week before in preparation for the event.

“This is actually my second time giving blood,” senior Grayson Akerly said. “I saw upperclassmen doing it and I wanted to be a part of that.”

NHS students also benefitted from donating blood.

“Students will receive one service hour for donating blood and half an hour for each person they recruit that is not a member of NHS,” NHS sponsor Jeb Puryear said.

However, despite the necessity of attracting donors, students had to be at least 16 years old, weigh over 110 pounds and be in good health. Other requirements are parental consent for students under the age of 17 and presentation of a photo ID on donation day. Carter BloodCare recommends eating a meal and drinking plenty of fluids before students donated.

After the donation, the organization suggests avoiding strenuous activity for 12 hours at minimum and refrain from smoking or consuming alcohol.

Students have the traditional option of withdrawing a pint of blood or participating in an automated blood donation known as apheresis. With apheresis, blood is drawn from the arm into a centrifuge which spins the blood to separate the components of blood which are differentiated by weight and density. The needed blood components are withdrawn, and the remaining blood is returned to the donor.

“Apheresis takes the double reds and returns the plasma,” Roberta Johnson of Carter BloodCare said. “This process usually takes 30 to 45 minutes, and the retrieved components are used to treat babies and cancer and trauma patients.”

Both procedures take approximately an hour beginning with registration and a health history. Physicians then proceed to conduct a brief physical examination before they withdraw blood, a process that takes just under 10 minutes.

“The mini-physical is an examination of the blood to determine if the donor is eligible to donate blood. The blood pressure, temperature and hemoglobin count are recorded; however, donors are only allowed to give blood if the hemoglobin level is higher than 12.5,” Johnson said.

In addition to the saving lives, there is another incentive with giving blood this year. The Red Cord Honors Program for seniors is a program intended to reward seniors for saving lives. Seniors who wish to receive this recognition are required to give blood twice during the school year and are then honored at graduation with additional cords- this time a strand of red.