National Honor Society and CAPstone

Safyre Yearling, Editor-in-Chief|November 6, 2017

From left, Lane Applegarth, Nathan Lauder, and Jorgen Johnson making the last tie on their blanket.

On Thursday, November 2, 2017, the Alliance High School National Honor Society got together to create tie blankets to donate to the CAPstone Child Advocacy Center. This is the second year that the National Honor Society has completed this project.

Cameron Collins and Dylan Horton, on left and Grace Tolstedt and Bailey Johnson, on right.

CAPstone is a relief foundation built to help promote the healing of victims who have suffered from child abuse. CAPstone is located in Gering, Nebraska and services eleven counties in Western Nebraska. These counties include Banner, Box Butte, Cheyenne, Dawes, Deuel, Garden, Kimball, Morrill, Scottsbluff, Sheridan and Sioux counties. The foundation offers a child friendly and family-oriented center for victimized children.

“In 2014, CAPstone served 382 children in Western Nebraska. These are children who had come to us with allegations of sexual abuse, physical abuse, severe neglect, drug endangered, and witnesses to violence (including domestic violence). CAPstone provides a safe and welcoming environment for children who have been abused,” stated the 2014 CAPstone Annual Report.

Makayla Davidson, Jaiden Brown, and Taylor Hopp.

Every child interviewed at CAPstone receives a blanket and another gift of some sort, including movies, stuffed animals, or toys. The Alliance National Honor Society jumped at the opportunity of helping these children, as soon as it was presented. Their advisor, Tera Digmann, gathered the supplies and the group ordered pizza, put on a movie, and divided into groups of four or five to create one blanket per group.

“I really thought that this project was a nice bonding time. You have to trust the process when making these blankets for such a good organization,” says member, Lane Applegarth.

(From Left) Dani Carter, Shae Toof, and Josie Otto begin their blanket.

The project lasted about an hour and a half and each group completed their blanket. Mrs. Digmann expressed, “This group of students have very kind hearts and are willing to do almost any service project I give them. Even though making blankets was a fun project, these students truly understood the importance of them giving their time to this project.”

“It was a very simple deed for a very good cause,” stated Nathan Lauder.

While National Honor Society is required to complete two service projects per year, this group already have the CAPstone project and three others planned and possibly more.