MOOSEHEART, IL - Like the tip of an iceberg, the ceremony that confers membership into the National Honor Society is the culmination of a massive amount of work, both in the classroom and in the community.
Three Mooseheart seniors - Heather Hensley, Krystal Ellsworth and Basheeba Mays - stood at that pinnacle on Thursday, Nov. 13, and performed the time-honored rituals that marked their formal entry into the Society.
After the trio lit the ceremonial candles on the altar at Mooseheart's House of God -- representing the National Honor Society's four goals of scholarship, leadership, service and character, the three inductees listened as Moose International's Director General & CEO, William B. Airey, highlighted the accomplishments they made that culminated with their entry into the Society.
"Today you begin to see the benefits of hard work," Airey said. "Not everyone will understand the importance of hard work and sacrifice. You do. Few take the time to give of themselves for the benefit of others. You have. Few put others first. You have not hesitated. Few have followed the lesson of 'do unto others as you would have done unto you.' You have listened and have learned well. Few have had their names entered onto the rolls of the National Honor Society but you have."
Hensley, sponsored at Mooseheart by Benton, AR Lodge 2567, talked about what it was like to light the ceremonial candles and participate in the ceremony. Membership in the National Honor Society is open to students with a minimum 3.2 grade-point average, an ACT Test score of 21 or higher and demonstrated accomplishment in those scholarship, leadership, service and character.
"It's really cool to get this," Hensley said. "Mooseheart's such a close-knit family type of atmosphere. It's cool to be individualized and recognized for your achievements and awards."
Membership in the National Honor Society is about more than just getting good grades. The community service element is integral to membership, and that is a component at which Hensley jumped.
"You have to do a lot of community service," Hensley said. "You had to have 30 hours completed before graduation. I already have 22 of my hours completed because when I get into things, I just keep going and I can't stop."
Like her classmates, Hensley said sitting and watching other honorees, including Kristofer Barnard in 2007, helped fuel a personal fire for achieving National Honor Society membership.
"When you're in the audience, I know you appreciate what the students up there have done," Hensley said. "But until you're up there, you don't understand the cool meaning of what it means to be in the National Honor Society and what it is."
Ellsworth, sponsored by Medina Valley, TX Lodge 2196, has juggled athletics, including volleyball and basketball in addition to her schoolwork and community service activities. She is also the commanding officer this year of Mooseheart's Naval Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps.
"It feels like I've accomplished one more thing," Ellsworth said. "I remember looking at the inductees the last three years. I remember watching (Barnard) up there last year and I thought 'I want to be up there next year."
Ellsworth said that she too is still working to complete her 30 hours of community service.
"It's not hard work," she said. "I like doing it and it feels a part of me. It doesn't feel like anything extra."
Mooseheart's chapter of the National Honor Society, when formed in 1921, was the first in the state of Illinois and just the fifth nationwide. As a result, there is a long history of Mooseheart students who have watched their classmates receive the honor of membership in the society and who have then gone to receive that honor themselves.
When she was younger, Mays got to watch her brother and 2001 Mooseheart grad Tommy Simmons enter the National Honor Society. Mays is sponsored by Bridgeview, IL-based Chicago Southwest Lodge 44.
"I told him," Mays said. "He lives in Urbana and went to the University of Illinois. We e-mail a lot. He was excited for me. He told me 'good job' and 'keep it up.' "
Like Ellsworth, Mays is a member of the Mooseheart girls basketball team and is constantly busy when not in the classroom.
"It was just an honor to be recognized for my achievements," Mays said. "And not just my academics but my outside work in the community as well."
As an example of the scholarship demonstrated by Hensley, Ellsworth and Mays, Thursday's program included the reading of sonnets written by each National Honor Society inductee.
Krystal Ellsworth's sonnet was entitled "Live Life Today":
Day by day we are enslaved by the hour
We make work part of our unhappy fate
Live alive outside the tall, dark tower
Clean our sweaty brow and let free our hate
We cannot read silence empty of a word
We will regret for not showing our love
The love that shouldn't be caged like a small bird Announce the desire, free the white dove
It comes unexpected, a silent event
The site of tragedies an invitation
It waits patiently for the soul's descent Coming swiftly, leaving no sensation
Live our life now with our complete being Tomorrow may not arrive, today is fleeing.
Heather Hensley's sonnet was entitled "In the End":
For three long years I have been here
While learning skills for the "real world."
When I'm here, I have nothing to fear
While my sail is just being unfurled.
Creating kinships to last forever,
Meeting people who are now close to me.
And in these friendships are ties I won't sever.
I'll remember the way we used to be,
Through good or bad, I focused on the best, Talked with the girls when things were over my head.
These friendships were always put to the test, I hope I remember everything they said,
Graduation is approaching way too fast,
The bonds I have made here will always last.
Basheeba Mays' sonnet was entitled "In a Child's Eyes":
If you should pass what life would that leave me?
Mem'ries kept close of our friendship
But the true love, I bear, can it ever be?
Will you laugh be heard nor your smile built?
Can you believe how the years have progressed?
No more your little girls, but a teenage blessed.
Come give me support and only good news.
If you were sad then I would have the blues.
You bring comfort and happiness to me.
No one can measure to your royal place.
Mother, you see, if you were to fly above No memory could paint your beautiful face.
Stay to never part from me on this earth.
No child dwells without she who gave its birth.
| 
