Staff Writer
National Honor Society members at Caribou High School completed their annual Carnation Sale Feb. 11 with a record-breaking total of 2,442 flowers sold. This total beat last year’s total by more than 100.
Aroostook Republican photo/Barb Scott
Ben Willey, a CHS National Honor Society student carries one of numerous buckets of carnations the organization was preparing for delivery at the school on Feb. 12. CHS students were able to purchase the flower and have it delivered as a surprise to someone during classtime. The event is one of the biggest fund-raisers the NHS holds.
On Feb. 12, the NHS members delivered the red, pink and white carnations to homerooms at CHS for distribution to anxiously awaiting students. Each of the carnations was purchased for $1 by students and staff, designating them to be delivered to friends and teachers during class times on Feb. 12. This is the only major fund-raiser for the CHS National Honor Society.
The annual carnation sale was co-chaired by Elizabeth Barbosa, Nicholas Willey and Emily Anderson. Each member of the NHS was given a quota of $40 and every member successfully met their target. Two teams were created to foster a healthy bit of competition between the juniors and senior NHS members with the juniors carrying the day.
The junior NHS students sold $1,381 in carnations and the seniors, though very successful, came in second with a total of $1,056. Leading the way in sales for the winning junior team were Adam Chartier who sold $135 worth of the long-stemmed carnations and Elizabeth Keaton who accumulated $101 in sales. Topping the senior carnation sales effort were Christine Kashian with $56 and Ethan McDuffie with $54.
According to Kenneth Atcheson, adviser to the National Honor Society, “A great deal of trading went on among the teams to guarantee that all members made their sales quotas. The New York Stock Exchange would be impressed with trades that went on during a certain science class here at CHS.” The victorious juniors will be treated to a meal at the Jade Palace Restaurant in March but the “bragging rights” appeared to be the bigger prize.
Junior and seniors who acted as team captains for the event, collecting all carnation orders and accounting for the funds were Christine Kashian, Finn Bondeson, Travis Hallett, Dayna Michaud, Kyle McEwen and Hannah Saucier. NHS alumnus Kayla Schurman, home during her Christmas vacation, generously stamped out 1,100 of the 1,700 pink heart tags and NSH members Brittany Doak and Danielle MacDonald completed this task. Special thank yous went to the faculty and staff at Teague Park Elementary School for allowing the NHS students to use their stamp machine.
All proceeds from this sale will be used for various NHS projects throughout the school year. The National Honor Society members offers their thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make this fund-raiser a success.
A pizza party rounded out the day’s work, on the afternoon of Feb.11, following the completion of attaching the ribbons and pink heart tags to the 2,442 carnations and arranging them in order for quick and efficient delivery Friday morning.
