Annual Painted Turtle Walk Returns

National Honor Society, also known as NHS, is a program at PV High that recognizes students with achievements in scholarship, character, service and leadership. 

One of NHS’s main activities throughout the year is putting on the Painted Turtle Walk. 

This year, the walk is being held on Dec. 12, in Sea King Park.

“It’s our sixteenth annual walk,” senior and NHS Board President Brianna Kunich said. 

“Whoever signs up gets a free T-shirt and then it has all [of the walk’s] sponsors on the back. We walk around Sea King Park, listen to music, there’s food, there’s games, there’s drinks.”

NHS sponsors The Painted Turtle, an organization that runs a camp for chronically ill children. 

“The Painted Turtle is a camp in Los Angeles County that supports sick children, and allows them the opportunity to have a camp experience,” English teacher and NHS advisor Caroline Secrist said. 

“The campgrounds are by Lake Hughes, and it’s set up to handle [medicational needs] that sick students might have. They’re able to go up there for a week, surrounded by other kids that have the same health complications that they have, and they’re able to continue their treatment, and have fun and forget that they’re sick for a while.” 

The Painted Turtle Walk isn’t the only service activity that NHS does throughout the school year. 

“For just the basic involvement, students are asked to do ten hours of community service per semester and then our group community service project of the year, The Painted Turtle Walk,” Secrist said. 

“We do tutoring throughout the year sometimes,” Kunich said. 

“I really like being able to meet new people because I wouldn’t have been able to before,” Kunich said. “But now, being in this organization with them, it’s definitely brought me closer. You get to meet new people and do service opportunities like our Painted Turtle Walk.”