NHS, Dimond Students Break Record for Beanie Boxes

National Honor Society (NHS) members gathered together before the holidays to wrap shoe boxes, and then place the donated items into them. Each box held items such as hats, gloves, scarves, socks, lotion, chapstick, toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant and snacks.

This year, the Dimond High NHS completed a record number of Beanie Boxes for Bean’s Cafe.

Senior and NHS President, Danielle DuClos, said, “We were able to make 202 Beanie Boxes this year.”

DuClos said, “I had a personal goal for NHS to complete 200 boxes, but I kept that quiet in case we were not able to reach that number.”

Luckily though, NHS was able to break their previous record of 146 Beanie Boxes, which was only set last school year, according to the NHS teacher sponsor, Lea Bouton.

Bouton said, “In the past years, we never exceeded 70 Beanie Boxes, so last year’s 146 doubled any previous efforts. Since that was such a grand event, we set our goal at 150 and then blew that out of the water with 202.”

Junior David Startz said, “I was incredibly surprised. At the rate I was wrapping, I’m surprised we got more than two, let alone 200.”

Bean’s Cafe was down 40 percent at Thanksgiving, with 150 turkeys less than expected, so it was important that NHS was able to give a big contribution during the holiday season.

DuClos said, “It is important to try and make as many boxes as possible and our goal is to always make more, but I’m still proud of how many boxes we were able to make this year.”

Items to be put in the Beanie Boxes by NHS were collected all throughout the end of November and beginning of December. Students and teachers at Dimond all pitched in to collect as many items as possible.

DuClos said, “From where we were in the week before we stopped collecting items, I knew that the amount of items we received had exceeded expectations.”

Wrapping and packing all of the boxes took close to three hours since there were so many items to put in the boxes collected.

Once all the boxes were packed and labelled with what they contained, they were gathered up to be sent out.

Bouton said, “Rich Owens, owner of Tastee Freez, coordinates Beanie Boxes for South Anchorage. He will pick up the boxes on Wednesday [Dec. 13] after school and drive them to Bean’s Cafe since there were too many boxes to store at Tastee Freez.”

Students and teachers at Dimond are well aware of the fact that these boxes are a very important thing to donate to. Many teachers will offer extra credit for items brought in, others have competitions between their class periods to see which class can bring in the most items and some teachers raise money within their classes and then use it to go purchase items to donate.

Junior, and member of NHS, Rachel Kim said, “I really think these boxes are great for the community. They allow for those unable to afford many basic necessities to be able to have these types of items.”

Kim also attended the wrapping and packing of the Beanie Boxes and said, “It was really fun to get together with people who had the same spirit of wanting to help others, and it felt nice to do something so meaningful.”

Similarly to Kim, Startz said, “By allowing schools to donate and make the boxes we are able to play a huge role in giving back to those in need.”

The collection of items for Beanie Boxes is a much awaited event that takes place at Dimond each year. However, donations for Beanie Boxes take place all over Anchorage.

Throughout Anchorage, there are three locations that items and boxes can be dropped off. Bean’s Cafe, their administration offices and Tastee Freez are all locations that will still be collecting items and completed boxes through Dec. 16.

For many people, these boxes are the only gift that they will be receiving this holiday season, which only makes it that much more important to donate.