By Daniel Gray
New Year’s Day this year was a special occasion for many
globally. It's the start of a new beginning while the negatives of 2020 are
sent off. On Jan. 1, many were celebrating in their own unique ways and Windham
High School's Honors Society had their own special way to celebrate 2021 as
well.
The Windham High School Honors Society is a group of
well-rounded teenagers who are dedicated to better helping the community and
individuals in it. Every year, they sell beautiful poinsettias during the
holidays to raise funds for scholarships for selected classmates, and this year
was no different. They sold their poinsettias but felt like there needed to be
an addition.
Anderson played hockey in middle school and back then as a
fundraiser, the team would go door to door after New Year's asking if people
wanted to donate their empty bottles. Thinking back on this, Anderson brought
up the idea to try something similar, but conducted at the high school.
His idea took off and soon the Honors Society vice president,
Chloe Allen, was announcing it online to bring more attention to the event.
Asking why she promoted the event online on Facebook, Allen
said she posted it on the Windham Maine Community Board Page because she though
it would help significantly.
“I felt that we have a great community, and that the Windham
residents would come help out our group,” Allen said. “I have been a part of
the community board for a decent amount of time and knew how many people were
in the group. I just knew that we have such a good community that would hear
our call for help."
Their group leader and WHS history teacher, Brandon Champion,
helped arrange everything and made sure everyone was safe, was practicing
social distancing and not overwhelmed by the amount and sheer numbers of the
glass bottles they were collecting.
During the drive itself, Champion drove back and forth to
Patman's Redemption Center to help create space within the area they were
working at the high school.
They group collected numerous bottles, but their efforts were
well worth it, Champion said. All told, the Honors Society earned a total of $550
through the bottle drive that will go toward college scholarships for WHS
students.
Everyone connected to the bottle drive said that they were
amazed when the news was broken of just how much they had earned through the
initiative, especially the honor's society leaders.
"I had no clue that we would get that much money, I
thought $100 would be the maximum amount,” Allen said. “But everyone had
bottles to give it seems, and a lot of people heard about our event."
Anderson agreed and said he was grateful to everyone who
participated either by volunteering to help or for those who were willing to
donate bottles to the effort.
“It's definitely a great feeling and I'm glad I was able to be
part of the process,” he said. “College obviously isn't cheap, so even that
amount can go a long way in helping a peer have the best experience possible in
college."
The Windham High School Honors Society has some more plans for
2021 to do further community work and fundraisers for college scholarships and
Anderson said that they will announce those initiatives to the community prior
to them being conducted. <
