Here at SHS many students have heard about National Honors Society, but have not known what it was. NHS is for SHS students who passed certain requirements. The requirements for joining NHS having a 3.5 GPA, having volunteer hours and having extra curriculars. NHS president Delaney Bucker says that all these requirements show that they are a well rounded person and that any student who fits these requirements will be inducted at the end of their junior year.

The first thing that NHS did was to have some of its members and regular SHS students volunteer at a learning program for disabled children called iCan Bike over June 22-26. iCan Bike took place over the 14-15 summer vacation and lasted five days. The people who participated in the program were NHS president Bucker, Susie Walker-Crawford, Britton Whitlock, Samantha Dishman and Emily Patterson.

According to icanshine.org extensive research shows that over 80% of people with autism and 90% of Down Syndrome never get to have the childhood experience of learning how to ride a bike. Although, with the help of organizations and programs such as these, those numbers are slowly going down.

According to a testimonial from a participating parent the iCan Bike staff this year had “dynamic and energetic personalities” enabling them to work through any difficulties. While on the other hand a testimonial from a volunteer says “(I got to) meet the sweetest kids in the world, make a difference in their lives… and have an amazing time doing so.”

Our volunteers here at SHS agree with being able to make a difference in children’s lives.  “I feel really great about it. I know he’s going to bring this skill to him his

whole life. He might not remember my name, but he’ll remember the whole experience,” Dishman said.

Great connections were made through this program and throughout the days they had together she said.

“We had a great connection, we talked about Star Wars and dinosaurs,” Dishman said. “It was my job to really motivate him, he really struggled with being motivated to keep going, so one of the motivators was to say a big dinosaur was chasing him.”

If any SHS students are interested in being in NHS then they should follow all requirements and they can be inducted at the end of their junior year. If any SHS student is overall a giving person and wants to just participate in the volunteer work that is fine as well says Bucker, see her for more details.