By Kai-Lou Yue
News Editor

Many high school students are required to complete a specific amount of community service that they need to reach, whether for NHS, or another activity. But with all the other time commitments students have, it is rare to find people who undertake more community service than the bare minimum.

However, there are two WA juniors, Elijah Richards and Nate Feehrer, who have over 2000 and 400 hours of community service respectively. As a result, during the 2013-2014 school year, they each received the President’s Volunteer Service Award, which, according to the Corporation for National and Community Service, recognizes people who have achieved the required number of service in a 12 month period, or cumulative hours in a lifetime.

“I started helping others around 6, but I became passionate about it in my late middle school years,” said Richards.

Both students have participated in a variety of different community service opportunities in order to reach the considerable number of hours they have earned so far.

Feehrer, who started consistently volunteering about 4 years ago, currently volunteers at Saint Paul’s soup kitchen and does various projects with his church including has volunteering in Haiti for the last three summers.

“Last year I went to Saint Paul’s quite often, and I had a lot of opportunities to volunteer through my church. This year [in Haiti], we worked at an orphanage where we leveled some land, installed new toilets, and painted maps in the classrooms,” said Feehrer.

Richards has participated in many similar opportunities as Feehrer; he does yard work, goes on mission trips, help feed the homeless, makes scarves for the needy, and does other activities for and with his church. However, he has been to Haiti a total of 12 times.

He said, “My mom has an organization that leads trips down there. Initially, I wasn’t too interested. But, as years passed, I grew a love for serving the people there. It’s labeled as community service but I mainly go down there because I love the country and the people.”

They believe that doing community service has made them more humble, and better people in general. Additionally, they feel that it has given them a different view on life.

“I see things in a different light and realize how much we take for granted. I’m grateful for the life I have, even when tough times come,” said Richards.

Feehrer added, “When you are serving someone, you are putting their needs ahead of your own, and that puts you in a pretty vulnerable, humble place. I’ve also gotten to meet some pretty awesome people in the process.”

However, even though community service is important to both of them, and they have spent a lot of time over the years participating in it, Feehrer realizes that he may need to cut down a little in order to cope with the demands of school as a junior.

“Up until this year I have not had a problem balancing my school work and community service. I’ve found that this year is much busier though, and it will probably affect how often I can help out,” said Feehrer.

On the other hand, although he is aware of the demanding nature of junior year, Richards expressed that he would like to continue with service for as long as possible.

“[Community service] gets in the way definitely. Sometimes it’s hard to balance [with school work], but I’d rather change peoples lives than stay inside and try and get a 4.0 GPA. Props to the people who have one, but I think there’s more to life than just school and studying,” he said.

Besides schoolwork and community service, both participate in other activities, and have many hobbies and interests. In Richard’s free time, he plays guitar and does photography among other activities. He is also vice president of the class of 2016 in school. Feehrer balances school along with two jobs, and his hobbies are playing guitar and volleyball, hanging out with friends, and is involved in his church’s youth group.

With all of the community service these two juniors have done over the years, it comes as no surprise they would want to encourage other people to do the same.

“I would just like to challenge people to volunteer, not to fulfill a school requirement, but to actually make the world a better place. It doesn’t take a lot to impact someone’s life in a huge way,” said Feehrer.