With borders shutting down and international tensions high, Oakville National Honors Society (NHS) is being countercultural by helping Bosnian students this spring.

NHS hosted a school supply drive Feb. 27 to March 3 for Projekt NADA, an organization that distributes school supplies to kids in Bosnia who do not have supplies on a daily basis according to committee chair Karissa May (11). “We decided to fundraise for this because it is such a great cause and we really thought our school would be enthusiastic and readily accepting towards the idea,” May said.

The club collected paper, writing utensils, glue, scissors, tape, and party favors from each ANP. They will be sending over 100 school supplies overseas ideally next week. NHS gave one raffle ticket per donation, and one student from each grade level was awarded a whole one-topping pizza from Pizza Hut. Winners include: Amanda Green (9), Aldin Zeneli (10), David Jones (11), and Jaidin Jackson (12).

“Admittedly, there were some minor challenges, but nothing we couldn’t handle. The start of the project was especially difficult because a lot of the committee was unsure about how the populous of this school would react…” committee member Kristopher Wu (11) said. “In addition, many people in this group were involved in many other committees and clubs outside of NHS, but all of our members were passionate about this group and overcame this challenge.”

Despite setbacks, the fundraiser ended triumphantly. “I felt like this fundraiser was a big success,” Wu said. “Lots of donations were received and many people contributed to the success of (the fundraiser). We had a supremely organized committee which helped a lot for this, and also a large portion of this school was passionate about this fundraiser.”