WHS’ community service week begins on March 9 and ends on March 13; the Community Service Club and the SGA have a lot planned for students.

“Service week is both about raising awareness for the issues in our community while getting our whole school involved in making a tangible difference,” said Community Service Club Co-President Ava Feldman. “Many people are not aware that there are individuals who live only 15 minutes away and do not have the privileges that we have. The events we have planned for service week are hopefully going to raise greater awareness for that.”

On Monday, WHS will start a four-day book drive. Students are encouraged to drop off new or slightly-used books to the boxes at the front doors of the school. “Many of us don’t realize how fortunate we are to be able to have books to read at school,” said Feldman. “In Plainfield, the head of the language arts department where we are donating the books told us that many of her [students] don’t even have a book in their home.”

On Friday, underclassman homerooms will package snacks for the Westfield Armory to send to soldiers overseas. Students will also be given banners to express their appreciation for servicemen and servicewomen. Later on Friday, WHS will host a student-faculty basketball game to raise money for  the Wounded Warrior Project.

Besides raising awareness for various issues occurring in the community, the week also plans to honor Dr. Derrick Nelson, as he was significantly involved with community service week. Zorana Culjak, an adviser of the WHS Community Service Club, explained that the theme of this year’s activities was specifically chosen to continue the legacy of Nelson. “We picked this theme to show appreciation for how much he did for our community,” said Culjak. “We also wanted to extend our partnership with the armory because Dr. Nelson was a serviceman.”