Most students babysit, do lawn work, and volunteer at food pantries to receive credit for service hours in various service oriented clubs. While the majority of students go out and find them on their own, one student has created a program to help extend opportunities, with a slight twist.

Sophomore Miranda Perry has started a program through the National Honor Society (NHS) to connect students with cancer or sick patients in need of assistance.

“My mom told me about one of her friends who cleans the house of a lady, who has cancer, for free, and how much easier it made that cancer patient’s life, and I realized I could do that too,” Perry said. “I could help make someone’s life easier, and I knew of a bunch of kids who were struggling to find things to do to earn service hours. I figured we could do so much for the people of our community if we had a connection. My goal is to start a program that becomes that connecting piece.”

Through this program students will be able to volunteer and serve through different tasks.

“Essentially, it will connect teenage students, who need service hours, with cancer patients and other patients of illnesses which take up their time and money and keep them from doing everyday things,” Perry said. “The students would help with everyday tasks such as babysitting, dog walking, helping grocery shopping, yardwork, and other things of this manner that the patient could request.”

After contacting the American Cancer Society about how to get started, Perry approached the NHS advisers about the program.

“I think this will be a great thing for students to get involved with,” NHS adviser Elyse Hall said. “It will be very cool next year to have have a student driven program that offers hours to students, and gives them a variety of volunteer opportunities with a variety of people in our own community.”

As Perry receives information about local opportunities, they will be posted online for sign up.

“I’m hoping to have a website, Samuel Ma is helping me set this up, where I can post job openings on it and whoever has the qualifications, such as a babysitting license, will get a notification and then its first come first serve from there,” Perry said. “Whoever signs up for it or emails me first will get the job.”

While the website is currently in the developing stage, students may contact Perry for more information.

“I’m super excited to get this started,” sophomore Samuel Ma said. “Even if we make a difference in just one person’s day, we’ll know that we’re really doing well and giving back time that they don’t have. We’re really hopeful we can get this up and running, but I do think it will start up as kinda small and grow with time as more people learn about it and get involved.”

The program will have have a dry run this summer to work out the details, and be in full function at the start of next year.

“If someone would like to find service hours through this program, they are more than welcome to contact me by my school email,” Perry said. “And if you join you do not have to take any jobs, it’s all by volunteer only. This is for kids in all grades, and they do not have to be a part of NHS. I’m really excited about this program, and I hope we can make a difference in our community. It’s just little things to make their lives a little easier. To help make them feel a little more at ease and give them back some free time.”