Imagine being a sick teen in the hospital, missing out on fun hangouts with your friends, school events, and other normal teenage things. Think about the toll that can have your mental health and how it can effect your everyday life. Heritage Heart’s main mission is focused on helping to fix this problem. It was started by two Heritage students in 2022, Abby McLellan and Grace Calapati. They wanted to start a club focused on helping spread positivity to students in hospitals. Although over time the club has expanded much more than that. Now, on top of their work in hospitals, the club has other missions such as participating in mental health awareness and middle school outreach.
According to one of the club sponsors, Mr. Murphy, “We are a service club, so we do a lot of things to help out the community.” Heritage Hearts has some big events throughout the year such as putting together holiday gift packages for the Inova Children’s Hospital and a holiday toy drive. Last year, they were able to send out 60 care packages with toys and crafts. In club time during the week, they plan big events like these and work on smaller projects. Some of those smaller projects include organizing donations, making greeting cards, and doing activities to spread positivity and kindness.
Students can help improve their community by simply joining Heritage Hearts. Because Heritage Hearts is a service club, there are many great benefits to joining. Being a part of Heritage Hearts can allow students to help others, but also students can be helping themselves. Spreading kindness makes people feel good, and Heritage Hearts is also a great way to get volunteer hours. Volunteer hours can count towards many things like National Honor Society, scholarships, internships, and helps students look qualified for part time jobs. The more club members, the more help provided to people in need and the community!
How can students join the club? They can reach out to Mr. Murphy at [email protected] or the other club sponsor Mr. Orrell at [email protected] for more information. Furthermore, students can attend club meetings in L403! To join the Heritage Heart’s remind, text @hhshearts to 81010!
