When the National English Honor Society (NEHS) needed help building a lending library, Mr. Jerome Black came to the rescue. The construction teacher and a few of his students took it upon themselves to construct a wooden library for the literary-based club.

The National English Honor Society has several service projects a year as a way to give back to their community. Karis Linley, a senior and a returning member of NEHS, states, “It’s important to participate in service projects because it allows people to take initiative and be active members of the community. You develop life skills, build social networks, and all while helping your community.” Their most recent idea was to create a lending library for people who wouldn’t be able to drive to the libraries around town. The club’s plan was to fill their “library” with books donated by the club’s members and place it in an area that is far away from the Cartersville and Adairsville libraries, allowing people to have access to books without having to drive very far. They also wanted to place it in an area that was in Cass district, since they wanted to give back to their students and their community in particular. There was just one problem: how would they make the physical library?

Luckily, Mr. Black, the construction teacher, and his students, Jordan Gani and David Collins, set out to work. In just a few days, they built the library for the club and gave it to Mrs. Micaela Armona, the NEHS adviser, to be painted, filled, and planted.

Neither student is a member of the National English Honor Society, but they were still more than happy to help with the club’s service project. For Collins, even though he wasn’t in the club, “It helped people outside the club. It helps people to know that the community will help each other.” When asked Gani was asked why he felt it was important to help the community, he answered, “Because helping other people out means a lot to me. And it shows other people are willing to help other people in the community. This helps strengthen me as a person because being kind to other people means the world to me. I love helping people. It makes you a better person. Trust me when I say this: what goes around comes around—always have and always will.”

The thoughtfulness and timeliness of their actions were not ignored by the National English Honor Society, who was very grateful for the hard work, effort, and speed of the project. The library was obviously made with care, and the club loves the way it turned out.

Mrs. Armona is especially grateful for Mr. Black and his students’ dedication to our school and her club’s project. She states, “[I would like Mr. Black to know] how much I sincerely appreciate his investment in our students and our community. It is always wonderful to have colleagues that help support your students’ desires when they try to help the community and help make that possible for them. And it’s always nice when a colleague is willing to help you when you send out the distress signal of ‘I need this done; can you do this for me please?’ So I really, really appreciate his taking the time and having the students do that for us.”

The National English Honor Society is super excited to get their community service project rolling, and they couldn’t have done it without Mr. Black and his students. They are the embodiment of a true Colonel, loving blue and living gold.