NHS Seniors Participate in Operation Breakthrough

The National Honors Society (NHS) seniors recently worked with Operation Breakthrough for their required service project outside of school. One of the NHS presidents, Morgan Satterlee, chose this program because she thought it would be a good way to get people excited about doing volunteer work.

“It is a fun way to do community service because there is a direct relationship with the kids.” Satterlee said.

Operation Breakthrough’s mission is “to help children who are living in poverty develop to their fullest potential by providing them a safe, loving and educational environment.”

Five members went this past week and were each assigned two kindergarten boys to focus on. Satterlee had planned activities involving counting and shapes to keep it educational, but ended up teaching the kids how to play down by the banks.

“You should always keep an open mind when going into Operation Breakthrough because the kids are the ultimate bosses,” Satterlee said. “One minute we will be playing one game and the next the kids will go off to something else.”

The NHS seniors will be going back to Operation Breakthrough in December. According to Satterlee, next time they go they want to do one big group activity to try and burn some energy and then split up individually so the kids can do what they want.

Duri Long, an NHS president, thought it went well for their first time and thinks it will only get better since they now have a good idea of what activities to work on. While she was playing dominoes with the kids, one girl sat next to her and Long could definitely tell that she enjoyed have someone give her individual attention and care.

“Although it can be hard to see progress in the group as a whole since the kids can be really rowdy and hard to control, it’s the individual successes that really shine and show you what a valuable thing you are doing for them,” Long said.

According to Long, this program is important because a lot of the kids don’t have good home backgrounds or places to go after school. By planning educational but fun opportunities for them, the kids won’t get involved in the wrong things.

Satterlee hopes that the members gain more of an appreciation for charity after working with the kids at Operation Breakthrough.

“Most of the time when you think of charity work you think of counting cans or raising money, but really it can be something as simple as hanging out with a kid every so often after school and just making their day better,” Satterlee said.