Approximately 100 students at Holmes gathered on Feb. 22 in the school’s multipurpose room and gym for “Hornets Give Back,” which served as the capstone for a month-long Students Rebuild project in all of the homerooms.

The global student organization selects a different theme each year and gives students an opportunity to participate, with this year’s theme focusing on refugees. For their part, kids were asked to channel their creativity to welcome people displaced by war and other crises by creating postcards to then be sent to young refugees across the globe.

According to Jodi Greenspan, information literacy coach at Holmes, the Bezos Family Foundation donated $5 to refugee-aid organizations for every postcard created, and that value doubled during the month of February. Homebase teachers at Holmes all signed up for a date, and the school’s peer leaders led the lessons.

From that project, Holmes students submitted 445 artworks, raising $4,450. The final hurrah was “Hornets Give Back,” which gave students the opportunity to take part in one of eight activities in the multipurpose room: make and decorate encouraging cards for hospitalized children; continue the postcard project; use sticky notes to write positive messages that were hung up on mirrors around school; make origami paper hearts and writing a positive message, which are then sent to cancer patients; make no-sew blankets for hospitals, homeless shelters, care facilities, or police and fire stations; make fleece toys to donate to Anti-Cruelty, or work on a disaster plan for their pets in case of an emergency; decorate banners to be put up in veterans hospitals and residences; or decorate lunch bags.

Students also took part in an open gym for half of the hour-long event.

Greenspan said while this was the first year for Holmes to participate in the project, it definitely has plans to do it again next year: “It was a good experience for the kids, and it brought the school together as a community.”