Even Chelsea Brown herself finds it hard to believe that her shyness forced her to sit alone in bathroom during lunchtime early on in her junior year at Lakes High School.

"I was extremely shy when I got here," Brown said. "I didn't know anyone."

But that's just a distant memory now, as Brown was forced to lean on what she learned from moving around as part of a military family and entrenched herself in school activities.

Brown, a senior, and Beth Hines, a sophomore at Lakes, were honored May 25 at the Tacoma Dome Exhibition Hall along with 17 other Clover Park School District high school students who earned a varsity letter in community service.

Students who volunteer 145 hours or more of service in a year earn their varsity letter, the same as those earned by athletes and musicians.

Brown, whose father, Stanley, is a colonel at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, moved to the area two years ago from Carlisle, Pa., making Lakes the third high school she's attended.

"Moving around has helped me see many different things and activities that I could bring to Lakes," Brown said.

Her volunteer activities included starting an African American Club at the school, working with a teenage mentoring group as well as organizing a step team and putting together a student talent show.

"I can't believe how I was able to do all of this stuff," said Brown, who will attend Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., in the fall. "I enjoyed every single minute of it."

The activities helped her make friends, she said, and the community service hours and recognition that comes with everything was just a byproduct of doing something she loves.

"I did it for me and the people in my community," said Brown, who plans on majoring in mass communications or journalism at Winthrop.

For Hines, whose father recently finished his military service at Lewis-McChord, her volunteer outreach included various mission work through her church at different locations in the Northwest.

Her service included working at a volunteer center, which aids migrant workers in Mount Vernon, and assisting on different community service projects with the Blackfoot Nation tribe in Montana.

"It never feels like work for me," Hines said. "I enjoy working with other people and seeing them really happy when you're done with the work."

Most of Hines' volunteer hours were accumulated over a two-week span during the summer, and when it was all said and done, she didn't realize how many hours she piled up.

"It just went by so fast because we were having so much fun helping people," said Hines, who one day plans on becoming a doctor.