High school students make a splash for charity

Senior students from Dartmouth High School’s National Honors Society got more than their feet wet on Saturday morning with their spring fundraiser: a car wash for charity.

Groups of seniors stood outside the Dartmouth Middle School in t-shirts and leggings, attending to the handful of vehicles that had pulled up.

There was also a table full of baked goods for sale and a DJ playing pop tunes.

Helena Farias, Shreya Rai, and Phoebe Cousens stood on Slocum Road with posters to attract the attention of passersby.

It’s the first time the society has tried a car wash, according to the school’s National Honors Society President Hannah Chamberlain.

She paused after hosing down a white Nissan.

“It’s going great,” she commented. “We have a lot more people than we were expecting. We sold tickets in advance, so I think a lot of those people ended up coming, which is awesome.”

Each ticket costs $5 — and before the wash even started, the students had sold about 150 of them.

They chose to donate the proceeds to the American Refugee Committee, which provides humanitarian aid and disaster relief to displaced people around the world.

Car wash customer Patrick Barker — also a student at Dartmouth High — came out to support his friends in the National Honor Society, although he isn’t a member himself.

“I’m not smart enough for that,” he joked, adding that his car looked “better than it was.”

Chamberlain was upbeat about the day, even though at first the students weren’t sure what to expect.

“We were worried that it was going to be completely dead,” she admitted. “But it’s been pretty busy.”

But she didn’t want to count her chickens just yet. “We’re going to see how it goes,” she said.