ALAH High School Inducts Eleven New Members into National Honor Society
On Sunday, April 24 the Arthur Lovington Atwood Hammond National Honor Society held its annual Induction ceremony in the west gym at the high school. The 2022 NHS Inductees pictured here from left to right: Logan Beckmier, Ava Binion, Kailee Otto, Clairece Seal, Kaylee Thompson, Mallory Nichols, Delaney Gillis, Kendall Burdick, Chloe Franklin, Nolan Schrock and Chase Tendick.
On Sunday, April 24, the Arthur Lovington Atwood Hammond High School National Honor Society inducted eleven new members. The new members filed into the new gym as a brass quintet of ALAH Band Director Ryan Wood, his student teacher, Mr. DeLaughter, and three students, Quentin Day, Emma Edwards and Zack Woodard played a processional.
NHS President Kade Herschberger welcomed everyone to the ceremony and introduced the keynote speaker, Bret Behrens, local TV station WCIA’s Sports Director.
Bret began by mentioning he knew Mr. Cheek, CUSD 305 Superintendent and Mr. Seal, ALAH Athletic Director from his high school days at Mahomet-Seymour High School. He told how he wasn’t a good athlete in high school but set a goal to be all conference in football and worked really hard and did achieve that goal. He had another goal and that was to become a sports broadcaster and even Sports Director at Channel 3 like the then Director Chris Widlic, but that all changed on June 13, 2006. He was working at the time building cell towers and suffered a terrible accident when he fell from 80 feet suffering severe injuries including the loss of a leg and causing him to be in a coma for 13 days and hospitalized for 56. He decided he “wasn’t going to let it stop me or slow me down.” It was a perspective definer and for him a second chance at life. He went on to finish at Parkland College and then to SIU-C and eventually became that sports broadcaster and director. He challenged the students with the question, “how do you make the most of a moment?” “The journey is not always easy, not always fun, but God said it would be worth it.” He told them to search for their why, his why being the power of a second chance. He closed with stating he is thankful for opportunities and thankful to share his story about God’s plan for his life.
President Herschberger thanked Mr. Behrens for his talk and began the Induction ceremony by introducing four current members to explain the four pillars of National Honor Society – Scholarship, Kaitlyn Zander; Service, Josie Hale; Leadership, Jace Green; and Character, Sarah Rafferty.
Kade then led the new members in the New Inductee Pledge and presented their certificates. The 2022 Inductees are: Logan Beckmier, Ava Binion, Kendall Burdick, Chloe Franklin, Delaney Gillis, Mallory Nichols, Kailee Otto, Nolan Schrock, Clairece Seal, Chase Tendick, and Kaylee Thompson.
ALAH High School Principal Steffanie Seegmiller offered some congratulatory remarks. She spoke about NHS being both an honor and a responsibility. National Honor Society has been in existence since 1921 and our school has been inducting new members since 1961. She told the students “to recognize the challenges of belonging to this group and weaving the four pillars into their daily lives and carry them also outside the school walls.”
Kade closed the ceremony with thanks to all involved in making the ceremony possible, including Mr. Wood and the quintet, Mrs. Beckmier for the beautiful floral arrangements grown by the FFA, NHS adviser, Ms. Kendall Huffman, the administration and the committee responsible for the refreshments for the reception that followed the ceremony.
