It is a warm and sunny Monday afternoon, and all around NAHS students are scattered across the sidewalk, writing words of encouragement for an Anchor Club event – Chalk the Sidewalk.

“I like that we’re able to provide community service opportunities to people in school,” senior Alex Stillwell said.

Stillwell is the president of the Anchor Club, which she has been involved with since her freshman year three years ago.

“I like that we provide an easy way for [NAHS students] to access that,” Stillwell said.

Anchor Club, as stated by their official website, “make[s] it easy for youths everywhere to give back and serve their local & global communities,” so a close relationship with the community is a given. However, they are far from the only high school club that supports the city of New Albany.

PTO President Jessica Lehman says many extracurriculars, from theatre to athletics to student council, participate in community outreach, and many of them depend on financial support from local businesses. And it isn’t only the students who rely on the community.

“Businesses can partner with PTO for spirit nights,” Lehman said. “Events like that really are a win-win because when we have a spirit night and then we advertise it… they have an increase in sales [and we] get a percentage of that.”

Apart from local businesses directly partnering with NAHS, many high school students work at or patronize restaurants or establishments in New Albany. Senior Gregory Perez works at Zesto, a regional ice cream store.

“I would say about seven of the workers at Zesto [are NAHS students or alumni],” Perez said. “I’ve seen a lot of my classmates there,”

Perez says businesses like Zesto frequently host giveback nights for schools in the surrounding area as well. A portion of sales is donated to the featured school/organization during these giveback nights.

“Sometimes they host certain nights for certain schools, Perez said. “They’ll have them mostly for the elementary schools and Our Lady of Perpetual Help.”

”I think a lot of students and even a lot of parents…don’t realize how much people in the community can connect and businesses can really help the school,” Lehman said.