By Emily Deeds

The South Lyon East National Honor Society has completed another year of its now decade old Ghost Grams fundraiser.

The South Lyon East National Honor Society was established in 2008 when East had its first junior class. According to the current NHS faculty advisor and science teacher Mr. Schmitz, the South Lyon East NHS tradition of selling Ghost Grams has existed for a decade now as well. “Ghost Grams have been around for as long as I can remember,” said Schmitz.

Ghost Grams are a fundraiser for the National Honor Society that pays for the materials to make fleece blankets for Mott’s children’s hospital as well as the operating fees that keep NHS running here at East, and leftover money goes to charity at the end of the year.

Ghost Grams are caramel apple flavored suckers with miniature sheet ghost costumes wrapped around them, along with a small tag where students can request to have an appropriate message written. They are delivered during 6th hour on Halloween day, or if Halloween happens to fall on the weekend, the Friday before.

Within NHS, Ghost Grams have a deeper meaning beyond its fundraising purpose. “It’s about more than the money,” said Schmitz. The sale also gives new members of NHS an easy way to get acclimated to the organization, have leadership opportunities, foster culture and climate in East, and allows for everyone to get involved in some fun during the Halloween season.

NHS Personal Resource Head and Ghost Grams committee leader Sophia Bolden explained why she was drawn to the fundraiser; “I really like fall and Halloween is super fun, and Ghost Grams is something that gets everyone involved, and it reminds me of Mean Girls (Candy Cane Grams), my favorite movie.”

As to why students have been buying Ghost Grams for a decade now- “They’re really nice things to give to your friends, it’s a nice way to surprise them on Halloween and it also supports our NHS program and the activities we do,” said current NHS President Gretchen Ascher.

With the relatively recent addition of a C lunch at East, NHS expanded their selling schedule to include all three lunches for the four days they are on sale.

NHS sets up a table during parent teacher conferences so parents can buy Ghost Grams for students. All Ghost Grams are delivered at the same time regardless of when they were purchased, and the price remains one for $1 or three for $2 the entire time of sales.

The current NHS president is ready to pass the torch to the class of 2020 and carry on the Ghost Grams fundraiser tradition. “We have a leadership committee that has juniors and seniors on it so the juniors will have the experience to take over next year,” said Ascher.