National Honors Society is putting on a Holiday Challenge to help families get materials they need. This challenge will be going on from Nov. 27 until Dec. 15.

Alicia Brungardt, StuCo sponsor, says that the project is not theirs, but they are helping in hopes of getting more student participation.

“Since we are large in number, we decided that we wanted to do something that would celebrate the season but also be meaningful,” Brungardt said. “We knew that we would be able to help them to meet the needs of more students if we participated, so that is how we got involved with this.”

All of the seminars have been separated into eight categories including Squeaky Clean, Sweater Weather, Groom the Grinch, Santa’s Workshop, Cookin’ With Mrs. Claus, Snuggle-Up Snow Day, White Christmas and Deck the Hall.

“Every department has a different list to hopefully provide as many items as possible to give to the families,” Brungardt said.

Every donation being made is coming from the Hays High community out of everyone’s willingness to give. There is not a prize or reward for donating to the project.

“We decided not to do a reward because we felt that if you wanted to donate that it should be really because you just want to help someone, especially at this time of the year,” Brungardt said.

Each list includes different items varying from school supplies to cleaning products and much more. With each list having different items and price ranges, Brungardt said, it didn’t seem fair to rewards classes based on the number of items they had donated.

Brungardt also is asking that students try to stick to the lists assigned to their seminars.

“We’d like them to stick to the list, unless they think that they have something they think would be really good,” Brungardt said. “We also would rather we had new items only because this is not like we are donating reused items to a charity. It’s like were providing a Christmas gift to a family, so new items would be one of our expectations.”

All donations are appreciated and are making an impact on students right here in our community.

“I think that the most important part of this project is that it actually helps student right here are Hays High, Brungardt said. “This doesn’t go outside of the community, it doesn’t even go out into the community, it goes right into our community, and I think that’s really important that they realize that they are actually helping people that are sitting next to them in class.”

19kpotter@usd489.com