DERRY - November is DECA month, and at Pinkerton Academy, the students in the international business and marketing club are pulling out all the stops to help the organization thrive.

In fact, this year DECA has started a new campaign called Thrive that aims to spread the message about the club, increase membership and get DECA members out into the community at large.

At Pinkerton, that means DECA's 70 students are working hard to meet the requirements of the DECA Thrive campaign by doing everything from canned food drives for local food pantries to promoting the club to the public.

If the students meet the goals of the campaign, Pinkerton will be able to send six students to the Thrive Academy, a new national program, according to Jen Scheffer, marketing teacher and the club's academic advisor.

"Thrive has you set goals that you have to meet by choosing promotion or community service campaign," said Aaron Wallack, student publicity manager for the campaign at the high school.

As the club seeks to add more members, Wallack said the Pinkerton DECA members have already hit a number of its community service goals, including raising $440 during a recent breast cancer charity walk.

In addition to increasing student membership, Wallack said one of the campaign goals is to increase the number of professional memberships from local businesses. Currently, the club has 14 professional memberships.

Wallack said he would like to see that number go to 20 and hold regular business lunches for the members.

Overall, Wallack and Scheffer said DECA has a number of benefits for students, ranging from building business relationships to learning how to work in a professional setting.

"It's also a great resume builder, and you get to meet a lot of new people through the club," said student Ben Raymond.

"The students have a career direction and learn about marketing in a lot of industries, including fashion, sports and hospitality," Scheffer said.