NHS Wants Your Old Trophies!

Students repurpose trophies to celebrate participation at Unified Sports events

On Saturday, October 19th from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m, the DHS National Honor Society will hold a trophy drive to benefit Dexter’s Unified program. The NHS Unified committee collects used trophies from local families and organizations in the fall, then repurposes the trophies for Unified spring events, including bowling and the annual Fun Run.

NHS students have been collecting trophies to repurpose for the Special Olympics for over 30 years. NHS Advisor Deb Marsh believes the program was started by former teacher Cheryl Wells, who taught at Dexter for over 40 years and also advised NHS. An agreement was made between Dexter and Chelsea High School’s special education departments where the two schools invited other programs from all around the county to participate in two events each year: a winter bowling event and a spring fun run. 

Dexter students clean up the donated trophies, take off the old dates and toppers, and put either bowlers or runners on top. The engraved name plates are scraped off and students add gold sticker labels that read “Excellence in Bowling” or “Excellence in Track and Field” for all of the student participants.

Before the pandemic, Dexter used to repurpose about 200 trophies per year. Since then, the Special Olympics events (now renamed Unified Sports) have been much smaller and NHS used up all of the previously collected trophies. The program is being reinvigorated, and NHS needs more old trophies to refurbish and get ready for this year’s events.

The NHS Unified Committee works closely with the Students Need Accepting Peers (SNAP) club, a DHS club designed to foster friendships and inclusion for Dexter’s special education students. All DHS students are welcome to join SNAP because everyone benefits from a culture of acceptance and inclusion. The SNAP Club hosts and coordinates Unified games and events, and the NHS Unified Committee recruits NHS volunteers to help out at these activities. The student volunteers also work to raise awareness for the DCS Unified Sports program, driving up participation in their events. 

Dexter is a Unified Champion School
Since joining the Special Olympics Michigan Unified Champion Schools Program in 2023, Dexter Schools has expanded their programming to encourage involvement for all of our athletes with disabilities and foster peer partnerships from PreK up through high school. Schools must meet three requirements to become a Unified Champion School: Unified Sports, Inclusive Youth Leadership, and Whole School Engagement.

In the fall, our Unified Sports athletes hit the field for Unified Soccer matches against other local school districts. During the winter months, students are on the boards for Unified Basketball. This past spring saw the first season of Unified Track & Field, which included many successes that were cheered on by the first Unified Cheer & Dance Team!

In addition to Unified Sports, DHS is committed to inclusion activities for all students including the SNAP club, the Peer to Peer course, weekly SNAP activities (homecoming, movies, lunches, dinners, attending school sports and drama events) the Polar Plunge, weight lifting, PE classes, yoga, and field trips, all of which helped DHS qualify as a Unified Champion District.