Service Hours

One of the four main purposes of NHS is service. Instead of doing many group service projects, we want to respect your valuable time and busy lives by offering you the opportunity to do your community service independently, in your areas of interest.

As a member of the Gig Harbor chapter of NHS, you are required to do at least 20 hours of community service per school year, including at least 4 hours of volunteer tutoring, including at least two NHS-sponsored service projects per year. Half of the hours (two tutoring hours plus eight additional service hours, including one NHS-sponsored project) are due first semester and half are due second semester. Please see the "Important Dates" section for the deadlines. You can work ahead, but cannot be behind. For example, you can do all four of your tutoring hours first semester, but you cannot do them all second semester because they are already past due.

Be sure to only list service that was done for a charitable organization or a non-profit for which you were not paid or compensated in any way and was not a requirement for any class. For example, helping your aunt mow her lawn, working in the TideFest Band booth selling soda, working with COFIA as a part of leadership class, housesitting for your neighbor for free, playing in the pit orchestra for the musical, and working at the Young Life Snack Shack to earn money for camp do not count as community service.

Tutoring must be done through and supervised by a teacher or a school or academic-focused community tutoring program (for example, tutoring through the public library). This is to ensure integrity of the program as well as your own safety. Parents can not sign off tutoring. It should be done in a public place, such as the library, the Boys and Girls Club, or a school, or via a recorded Zoom. Tides Tutoring is not required; it is simply an option that is convenient for many students. The purpose of tutoring is to provide help for struggling students to help them improve their performance in school. Mentoring, coaching, studying with your friend, music or dance lessons, helping a sibling, teaching Sunday school or communion class, training someone at work, or similar experiences do not count as tutoring. Additionally, like all service, tutoring must be done free of charge.

Record your hours on this form, have it signed by the supervising adult, and hold on to them until they are due. If you attend an NHS-sponsored event and are able to sign in on the attendance sheet, you do not need to fill out a form.

The end of the semester always has a way of sneaking up on us...be proactive and get these done early in the semester please!

Please note that since we are back to school in person and most volunteer opportunities are open, beginning with Fall of 2021, we are back to the normal amount of service hours. Thanks!

If you'd like to sign up for Tides Tutoring, you can do that here. You must be signed into your PSD account to access the document.