National Honor Society kicked off its second meeting of the year on Tuesday by making dog blankets to donate to Kansas City Pet Project, a nonprofit organization devoted to animal welfare. This marks the first NHS meeting in which students participated in community service as opposed to listening to officers talk about upcoming events and deadlines.

Under the leadership of community service officers Emma Bunde and Alissa Gilmer, designated groups of students work together to plan what service events will happen at which meetings. “We wanted the meetings to be more active instead of just listening to information that we could send out in an email or a newsletter,” NHS sponsor Amanda Sherraden said of the recent change. This is her first year sponsoring the organization.

In the weeks leading up to the October meeting, students donated gently used blankets and linens to NHS. At the meeting, groups of about six students placed two blankets on top of each other and cut small slits around the edge of the blankets, creating fringed pieces that were then tied together to combine the two blankets into one. At least 25 tie blankets were made by the end of the meeting.

“I thought it was awesome. […] Everyone seemed to have a good time doing it, and it was very service-based, but also everyone could get to know everyone else,” Sherraden said. Secretary Lauren Brown echoed Sherraden’s praise of the meeting, saying it went “well” and was “really good for the school and the community.”