DMAE sure knows how to raise holiday spirit and give back to its community! To uplift those financially impacted by the pandemic during the holiday season, the DMAE National Honors Society (NHS) organized a new fundraising event in December to help. Not only did the event included holiday gifts, it also raised funds for homeless

Members of the NHS put together Holiday Grams — packages containing items such as hand sanitizer and custom holiday masks along with a message from the sender — and delivered them to those who ordered the $5 packages. The profits raised from the event went to the homeless in Englewood. 

“The Holiday Grams gave the students at our school an opportunity to send their love to one another and show signs of appreciation to one another. We understood that everyone’s holiday season was to be affected and not as joyful, but we decided it couldn’t be half as bad as those who spend their holidays without a warm house and nice meal,” NHS President Jeffrey Hong said.  

NHS members followed strict COVID-19 guidelines while meeting up to package the Grams. Several senior members volunteered to be drivers and worked hard to deliver the grams to people all throughout Bergen County within the span of a few days. 

“We promoted this event through various social media blasts and relied on our members to reach out to friends and family. Those who wanted to place an order did so via Google Forms,” NHS Vice President Christopher Butcher explained. 

The members’ hard work paid off, and NHS is looking forward to organizing more events like this according to Jeffrey. 

“To be completely honest, I only expected about 20 to 30 Grams to be sold. I was happy to see that approximately 45 were sold thus raising over $200 dollars for the homeless. The success of this event makes me optimistic of future events,” Jeffery concluded.