In early December the KJSHS National Honor Society executed their annual Caring for Carlos service project. However, unlike previous projects, the NHS President, Yamila Johnson, and Vice President, Nathan Melody decided to take a different approach to the amazing tradition and create a project where their passion for providing came through.
This year, what was once known as Christmas on Carlos became Caring for Carlos, a name selected to exemplify what the end goal of this project was: to provide the items that the men and women of Carlos have requested for the past few years. The officers of NHS alongside Mrs.Huwe went over to Carlos at the beginning of the school year to check in with the school and ask what other supplies they would need. In the end the school asked for lights, fans, and a generator as the school couldn’t have kids during the rain due to a lack of light and extreme heat from humidity. With these issues in mind Yamila and Nathan worked tirelessly to guide our club so we could provide the students with everything they'd possibly need to be set up for success. From meeting with the Kwajalein Command to meeting with local contractors and purchasing food on the neighboring island of Ebeye, the club went out of their way to make sure the generator was able to be purchased and functional.
However, it is not just the school the club is looking after, they are there to provide food, hygiene, and as many goods to the people of the island. Yamila Johnson led through her focus on providing the generator, gathering money donations, and curating the boxes that would go out to each individual family. She communicated directly with command and built connections that allowed the club to purchase the correct generator and to make sure that all fans and lights corresponded with the proper electrical voltage. In order to pay for such a generator though, NHS as a club gathered $8,000 to purchase all the supplies needed to provide for the people of Carlos. With these donations the club packed boxes for each family, making sure no family was left out and that larger families were well provided for. In leading the donations and box initiative, Yamila pushed the group to do more than what was thought possible in the past, and because of this NHS was able to provide some of the most valuable donations to date.
Although the generator was the most necessary donation, NHS aims to provide the people of Carlos with necessary goods. In order to do this, Nathan Melody took the lead on providing the students of the island with supplies by providing backpacks for every kid. Each backpack contained a number of school supplies as well as hygiene items and food. In order to bring in the community backpacks were passed out to each grade level and were handed out during fundraisers as a way to have community members fill the backpacks. However, no matter the good intentions there were always some kids with more items than others and in order to make this the most fair the items had to be sorted and spread out. Nathan took the initiative to build a spreadsheet on his own time, with each child’s name, the supplies in their backpack, the supplies we had on hand, as well as any supplies that we needed included on it. From this spreadsheet club members were able to easily pack and label each backpack, making sure that no kid went without.
Through the hard work and dedication of this club, the National Honor Society completed their most successful Caring for Carlos. In doing so, NHS has continued to build and develop their relationship with the people of Carlos, in hopes to continue this project and support the Island for many years to come.