By Jason Wesseldyk
Sports Editor
The four pillars of the National Honor Society are scholarship, service, leadership and character.
One of the ways the Otsego High School chapter of the NHS demonstrates service is through its annual toy drive that supports the Otsego Christmas Ministries.
This year’s toy drive resulted in $11,000 from donations and fundraisers that was used to purchase toys that will help make Christmas a little brighter for 172 area children.
Otsego High School math teacher Katie Wideen is the school’s NHS advisor.
“One of the pillars of NHS is service, and doing this toy drive is a huge service to the community,” Wideen said. “We don’t get to see the end result of the kids getting all of their gifts. But hearing stories from the leaders of the Otsego Christmas Project, there are many tears of joy from the parents when they pick up the gifts and lots of big smiles from the kids when they open their gifts.
“This is one small way we can help those in our community who need a little help.”
And while the toy drive is about serving and making a positive impact on those in the community, it also has a huge impact on the NHS students, according to Wideen.
“I think that for many of my NHS students, this experience humbles them a little,” she said. “The majority of them, if not all of them, are not in need of anything. So to see the things that these kids that we buy for ask for opens their eyes a little and helps them look past their own little world.
“When kids are asking for things that most of my NHS kids would just run to the store to get—like make-up or paper to draw on or colored pencils or skin care products—it really makes them stop and think.”
Wideen sees the toy drive as a growth opportunity for the students.
“It gets many of them out of their comfort zone a little and that is what I hope many of our service projects do,” she said. “I want them to see that not everyone has it as good as they do and even a small gift can make a huge impact on someone.”
Fundraisers for the toy drive actually began last March, when NHS members sold baked goods during performances of the NHS musical “Honk!”
Other fundraisers included running the free throw shooting contest at the Gus Macker tournament in August; holding a bake sale at one of the football games in the fall; and three Dine to Donate events at Blaze Pizza in Kalamazoo, the Panera in Kalamazoo and the Culvers on M-89.
“Teachers at the high school also paid to wear jeans during the three weeks we were in school in December ($10 per week),” Wideen said. “And we ran a calendar fundraiser where the kids had a calendar of November and asked people to sponsor a day. So, for example, if you said you were going to sponsor the 5th of November, you would pay $5.”
While the toy drive is over, the Otsego High School NHS still has plenty of service projects planned for the remainder of the school year.
Those projects include:
- The Share the Warmth Project in January.
“We will be collecting new winter hats, gloves, scarves and warm socks (both adult and kid sizes) and delivering them to the Kalamazoo Gospel Mission,” Wideen said. “This is our third year doing this and in the past two years have delivered almost 1500 items.
“We will have an Amazon Wish List set up, or people can also drop donations off at the high school during normal school hours.” - Serving as guest readers at the districts elementary schools during March is Reading Month.
“My big kids love this and the little kids love having the big kids come and read to them and hang out for a short time,” Wideen said. - Taking part in Roof Sit in May.
“We will be helping out with Roof Sit by participating in their Tips for Kids campaign,” Wideen said. “Roof Sit raises money to help provide resources to children and families in the Kalamazoo area that have been affected by child abuse.”
In addition to those bigger projects, the OHS NHS plans to do at least one smaller project each month.
