One of the key qualities of being a National Honor Society member is community involvement. For Apollo High School’s Cole Stroot and Olivia Skudlarek, there is no shortage of caring and heart for those in need.
Stroot’s family has been connected with Haitians for many years. His family sponsored two children several years ago, and while in eighth grade, Stroot and his family traveled to Ruska Village. That’s when the need really struck his family: the need for education, books and opportunity for Haitian children.
Approximately four years ago, Stroot’s family started construction on a school funded by their own money. The goal was to fill the school with 400 students.
However, in 2016 fate intervened when Hurricane Matthew hit Haiti causing destruction and devastation, including the school. Classes halted, and the school has been closed ever since.
Stroot remembers his last visit to Haiti.
“During my last visit, I personally tried to bring as much [school supplies] as I could,” explains Stroot. “I brought four to five suitcases [full of supplies]. It was great when I opened them up to see how excited the kids were.”
Stroot wanted to expand on that feeling, so he approached Olivia Skudlarek, the current president of Apollo’s National Honor Society (NHS). He asked her if NHS could run a school supply campaign for the Haitian students.
“I was very excited to have something for us [to contribute]–to see it grow and have someone there [in Haiti] come back to us and share,” describes Skudlarek. “It’s a great opportunity for a service project and NHS is the perfect program to do this with. National Honor Society students do a lot of volunteering. They are required to volunteer a minimum of 40 hours each school year.”
Apollo NHS students ran a school supply campaign and were able to collect three and a half suitcases full of supplies. Apollo High School staff donated the suitcases.
During winter break, Stroot and his family traveled to Haiti to help with the school reconstruction and deliver the school supplies.
When the suitcases were opened, squeals of joy and excitement erupted.
“They loved us!” shares Stroot. “As soon as we were able to interact with them, we all had a circle of kids around us. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a group of kids so continuously happy.”
Stroot and his family spent five days in Haiti. The kids were back in school with the construction underway.
“The experience has been life-changing,” explains Stroot. “There’s a serious side. I won’t take for granted the amount of water we have here. Every drop of clean water is precious… We worked long days, even when I got tired and gave up, there were others that stayed working until 10-11 at night with flashlights.”
Stroot took over 800 photos and shared his experience with NHS upon his return.
“Most of the students were surprised at how different it was there,” he explains. “It’s a completely different lifestyle…It’s very rural and most people have to walk a mile to get to water.”
The impact on NHS was powerful. The group decided to continue to look for other outreach ideas such as this one. They want to truly make a difference and realize that even just a simple school supply drive can have a large impact on a community.
