Orchard Place, a Place of Growth

On January 21st, 2023 WHS hosted Winter Formal here in the high school. NHS (National Honor Society) raised money for a local charity, Orchard place. In NHS we had Winter Formal chairs, the people in NHS who were in charge of the planning for the dance, which included Oriana Ryker and Adria Steinmetz who helped choose the organization of choice.  Senior Oriana Ryker says “I had the opportunity to look through organizations close to us here in WDM and looked through many different options. I found five that I thought would be best for our group, and I came across Orchard Place for one of them.” The process of choosing this was very interesting and showed lots of leadership in NHS. The president of NHS, Ritika Shroff, was a big help in choosing Orchard Place and provided the opportunity to vote. “I showed all the organizations to the rest of our group in one of our NHS meetings. We put the poll in our checkout of the meeting, then we voted and decided upon our charity, and that was Orchard Place.”

In 2022 Orchard Place served 7,029 children and adolescents through many different programs and serves kids from birth to 21 years of age, employed 350 staff members, and engaged 335 volunteers. This place is very important to our community and not many people know about it. English teacher and NHS advisor, Mrs. Beeson says “I had only heard about it through other teachers who said it was a place to help various students at different ages.” Their professional staff, volunteers, and individual and corporate donors help provide the help many people need. These types of organizations can connect back to our personal life more than we know, Oriana said, “I told my mom about the organization and she told me she almost ended up working there.” This just proves how close these places can connect to our personal lives. 

Orchard Place is a local organization focusing on adolescent mental health with many services provided to fit your needs. Mental Health Consultation Education, Psychiatric Therapy, Outpatient Mental Health Therapy, School-based Therapy, Tutoring and Mentoring, Individual Counseling, Behavioral Health Intervention and Outreach, Anger Management, Alternative Education, Preventative Alcohol and Substance Abuse Education, Trauma Informed Care, Suicide Prevention, Care Coordination, and many others. Things like School-based Therapy, Anger Management, Trauma Informed Care, and Suicide Prevention, all are very present in our adolescent lives and could help us as high schoolers significantly. 

Orchard Place’s journey started in November of 1886 when a 3-day-old baby was left on the doorstep of Elizabeth Mann’s home. After this incident, she and her friends established the Home for Friendless Children, which happened to be the city’s first orphanage. Later on, they changed the name to Des Moines Children’s home, then eventually to Orchard Place. They went from an orphanage to children who need help, to now a place to help the wellbeing of children’s mental health. 

This year’s winter formal dance helped provide more money to this great organization. We are extremely thankful to have raised over 2,000 dollars in ticket sales.  They have many things to offer with many people to help. They have had a very long journey with lots of rewards. From choosing it to raising the money, NHS put lots of effort to raise this money and providing for Orchard Place.