RHMS NJHS pet supply
By Celeste McNeil; photos courtesy of RHMS NJHS
National Junior Honor Society students gather in the library for a chapter meeting. RHMS has 37 students participating in NJHS this school year.
Rocky Heights Middle School (RHMS) has a strong National Junior Honor Society (NJHS) this year, with 37 students inducted and participating. Recently, students voted on a community service project – a drive to collect pet supplies for the Denver Dumb Friends League.
“Our goal for the Denver Dumb Friends League was to donate as many goods as we could to bring joy to all of the animals in the shelter,” said student Gia Capizzi. They got the word out with announcements on Nighthawk News, the school news program, and including the drive information in the school newsletter.
The mountain of donated items RHMS NJHS collected from the RHMS community this year, sits outside Denver Dumb Friends League, waiting to be brought inside and put to good use to benefit all the animals in the shelter.
Collection boxes were placed throughout the building. Each morning NJHS students checked collection boxes and gathered donated items. Items were counted and logged into Google sheets to keep track of how many items were donated and which classrooms donated the most.
A variety of items were donated – like toys, puppy training pads, harnesses and leashes, gloves for workers, to smallish dog beds, towels, and even travel crates in various sizes. Several large bags of pet food were also collected. A total of 3,000 items were gathered.
A group of NJHS students, RHMS staff club sponsors – Michelle McClarran and Carrie Ann Schmitz, as well as parent volunteers delivered all donated items to the Denver Dumb Friends League.
Student Hailey Anderson spoke for all NJHS students when she said, “We would like to thank Mrs. McClarran and Mrs. Schmitz for all of their hard work and commitment to this charity. We truly couldn’t have done it without them! The large amount of items collected made us proud and happy. Even those who didn’t vote for this cause said they were happy we did it. It felt really good to know that we were able to make a difference in animals’ lives! It was a lot of hard work, but completely worth the outcome,” continued Anderson..
