Nashua North NHS commits to raising money for CHaD in memory of former student

Nashua High School North’s senior members of the National Honor Society recently raised $3,132 for the Cure With Hope foundation as part of their first ever group service project. Cure With Hope is a nonprofit organization founded by 2009 North graduate Rebecca Tabat, who died in March 2010 after fighting cancer. The mission of Cure With Hope is to “help brighten a child’s hospital stay” by buying toys, games and books for them. Cure With Hope recently committed to supporting the Pediatric Inpatient Refresh Project at Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth (CHaD) in Lebanon. Over the next two years, Cure With Hope hopes to donate $75,000 to CHaD to build a centralized family and play area in the pediatric ward. In addition, a plaque with Tabat’s name will be hung on the wall of the ward. Already, $25,000 has been raised for the project. North seniors gave their time to raise money for this project through multiple fundraisers, such as a spaghetti supper, “spring sonnet candygrams” and popcorn sales after school. “This project was much more wide scale and community oriented,” said the National Honor Society’s vice president, senior Olivia Powell. “It lasted a whole week where we tried to raise awareness about Cure With Hope rather then just the honor society sending some members to volunteer for a couple of hours.” The original goal of the many fundraisers was $1,500; however, the honor society far surpassed that amount in raising $3,132. “We raised more than we anticipated, which is exciting not only because the funds are for a good cause, but also because it was the first group project for the school,” Powell said. Despite some roadblocks along the way, the success of the events came from superior leadership from the officers, as well as the dedicated support of the senior volunteers. “We depended heavily on the membership to each pull their weight in order to make this a success,” said the National Honor Society president, senior Sabrina Subron. In order to organize everyone so the events ran smoothly, seniors were separated into groups and given specialized tasks to complete. “We hand-picked people we saw as leaders within the honor society and made them the heads of each of the committees,” Subron said.