Fourteen National Honor Society (NHS) members of Thompson Falls High School attended a fun-filled weekend in Seattle to celebrate their classwork accomplishments and achievements.

The students spent a long weekend, from Nov. 9-12, visiting the "Emerald City" and took in as many sites as possible. Funding for the trip was collected through many fundraising activates throughout the year. NHS students sell cookie dough in the fall, host dessert auctions in the winter and maintain a snack vending machine at the school. These on-going activities help pay for trips such as these, membership dues and induction ceremonies.

GEAR Up, a Montana program funded through U.S. Department of Education designed to prepare students for post-secondary education, contributed funds toward the trip because the students had scheduled a college visit to Whitworth in Spokane. Thursday, after touring the campus and seeing what the college has to offer, the students continued their excursion to Seattle.

But the fun did not stop there. The students joined in the big city hustle-bustle by packing in visits to Pike's Market, Seattle Aquarium, Argosy Cruises Seattle Harbor Tour, shopping downtown, Space Needle, Woodland Park Zoo, Pacific Science Center, Chulilly Garden and Glass, Experience Music Project Museum, Chinatown International District and a movie.

Jodi Morgan, NHS Advisor and high school counselor, has directed Thompson Falls' NHS program for the last 9 years. "This is the first year I changed the trip to be every other year and include both juniors and seniors," said Morgan. "It is more economical to do it this way," she continued. The program originally sent seniors on the trip annually. "The next group to go in two years will be the NHS members from the classes of 2020 and 2021," Morgan added.

Morgan is proud of the work the kids do outside the classroom as well. NHS supports many local community service activities. Every fall NHS invites the American Red Cross to the school to put on a blood drive. Every December they bake cookies for the Senior Center and deliver them. Highway clean-up and supporting high school spirit through various events are duties the group also enjoys being part of.

NHS members in the junior and senior class who partook in the Seattle voyage are Jessica Bronner, Elsie Brown, Lily Buchanan, Payton Frields, Karissa Lowe, Haley Morgan, Kole Stone, Tyler McGaughey, Jase Sorenson, Cody Williams, Nathan Burwig, Sarah Detlaff, Grant Lundberg, and Rachel Ribeiro.

NHS members must be at least a sophomore and have attended Thompson Falls for at least one year. If a student transfers to Thompson Falls and was a NHS member at previous school they may also transfer into the Bluehawk Chapter. The student must also have a minimum of a 3.5 cumulative grade-point-average and maintain that while working for their college preparation diploma. Lastly, the student must show outstanding leadership, character and service to be considered. These criteria are set to include students who "perform far and above the normal standards both in and out of the classroom."

Morgan showed appreciation to the local community who supports the NHS. "When we sell cookie dough we usually sell over $5000 worth of product, and they also support our dessert auction during the basketball games," she said.