Positive

Clubs and honor societies such as NHS and Key club set a high requirement for service hours, and many prohibit “double dipping” or using the hours for more than one club. These strict guidelines unfortunately lead to students distorting the number of hours they truly do to help them stay in these organizations and ultimately boost their chances of getting into college.

Donating items for service hours provides an alternative to falsifying the good you are doing and instead improves the community. Despite the possible unethical side of “buying service hours”, the products collected from it do a lot of good. From hygienic products to food, Lake Braddock has run dozens of drives that have helped hundreds of families.

Though it is sad to say, without the incentive of service hours the donations collected during these drives would decrease. These products are arguably more helpful than some of the handmade products that are made during many of the default service projects that clubs do, such as cards and dog blankets. This raises the question: is the goal of service hour requirements to help improve the community, or to teach students the importance of doing meaningful hands-on work? 

Negative

Volunteering and service house give students a great opportunity to get involved in their community and find projects that they care about. However for many students, service hour requirements are the leading incentive for doing service. 

Clubs and honor societies such as NHS and Key club set a high requirement for service hours, and many prohibit “double dipping” or using the hours for more than one club. These strict guidelines lead many students to try to get service hours anyway they can. 

To help students reach their required hour count, many clubs will allow students to donate items in exchange for service hours. For example, donating a can of food could equal 15 minutes of service. This opportunity to fundamentally buy your service hours puts low income students at a disadvantage compared to their peers. 

This shortcut also allows members to receive an abundance of service hours while also decreasing the amount of work and care that actually goes into the community. Although the goods that are donated help the community