By Sharon Alms
National Honors Society Adviser at Austin High School

It has been an active year for Austin High School’s National Honor Society. By the end of this school year, our 70 members will have completed more than 1,600 hours of service to our schools, churches and community.

Some examples of our service areas include providing workers for school carnivals, reading to kindergarten students, helping with the American Red Cross annual Tour of Homes, making and delivering valentines to nursing home residents, serving as small group leaders for Youth Frontiers workshops, raising $862 for the local March of Dimes walk, childcare for parent meetings, teaming with the Student Council and other school groups for the Five Days of Giving fundraising events over the holidays, Salvation Army bell ringing, United Day of Caring and Community Clean Up Day. These are just a fraction of the many projects our members assisted with this school year.

Our final project for the year takes place at 6 p.m. Friday, May 18. Once again, National Honor Society members will take over the Hastings parking lot on the south side of Austin High School for the purpose of raising funds for a worthy cause. The fundraising efforts this year will benefit the Mower County Humane Society.

Volunteers from the Mower County Humane Society will have a few of the many dogs available for adoption in the parking lot from 6 to 7:30 p.m. that evening. Community members are invited to stop by to see the dogs and consider making a donation. Some of the items needed by the Humane Society at this time include: IAMS lamb meal & rice dry dog food, IAMS dry cat food, bleach, paper towels, dryer sheets, high-efficiency (“HE”) style laundry detergent, Frontline or Advantix flea preventative, garbage bags (kitchen and trash can sizes 40 gallon and up), kongs & rope toys for big strong dogs, and cash. The students will also be collecting aluminum cans at this event so feel free to drop off any cans you have piling up in your garage and know they will be going to a great cause.

We hope you will stop by the AHS south parking lot this Friday night and show your support for our local Humane Society which provides such a valuable service to our community. Every donation helps!