Members of the Twin Valley High School (TVHS) Tri-M Music Honor Society recently held their annual Coats for Kids Drive, collecting gently used coats, hats, gloves and scarves for distribution by Anchored Ministries. The collection, held from Nov. 24 through Dec. 22, 2020, netted a total of 260 items.

According to society adviser Tonna Dieter, the coats and other items were collected from Twin Valley School District students and their families. "Collection boxes were placed in each of the district's five buildings, and the Tri-M students were responsible for putting out the boxes and collecting the coats," she said.

This is the second year that the society members donated coats to Anchored Ministries, an Elverson-based community services ministry that provides basic necessities, including food and clothing, to people in need.

"We donated last year's collection to Anchored (Ministries) when we heard that the need was great at each of their (clothing) drive locations," said Dieter. "The Tri-M students collected, sorted and counted all of the items from our drive, and a representative from Anchored came to pick up the coats and other items. We were told that they went quickly because the need was so great in the community."

Students who are eligible for membership in the honor society must participate in at least one major music ensemble at TVHS - the band, chorus or orchestra.

"Tri-M is a music honor society requiring students to maintain an A average in their music courses and a B average in their other academic courses," Dieter explained. "Students can apply for membership in the fall with the requirements being involvement in at least one of the music ensembles, a dedication to perform two hours of community service during the course of the school year and the maintenance of the grade average. There is an officer board that helps to oversee the club, run meetings and brainstorm outreach initiatives."

Tri-M members typically take part in a new team-building activity throughout the year and community service projects, such as caroling for the Christmas holiday, the coat drive, soup kitchen volunteering and public music performances.

Dieter noted that the students have been creative with projects during the pandemic. "The student leadership team keeps brainstorming ideas that we can do within the current guidelines. Last spring our in-person Talent Show was canceled, so the students collected video submissions which they edited and broadcast on YouTube Premier," said Dieter.

To create the online Talent Show, Tri-M Music Honor Society members took videos of the TVHS students performing music, dance and comedy acts in their homes and then edited and created the final compilation video. To view the Talent Show, readers may visit http://www.youtube.com and search for "2020 Annual Twin Valley High School Tri-M Music Honors Society Talent Show."

"This year we've been able to run our coat drive and will do some in-school community building activities for the winter months," Dieter added.