Better resumes, life experiences and a good group of people – these are all things students can get from being in the Interact Club.
Interact, which is affiliated with Rotary, is a way students can help in their schools and communities, to better those around them as well as themselves. The Rotary organization is made up of only adults who donate funds to help better the local cities. Some of these funds go to places like Interact to ensure that students within this club are able to go out and help others how they see fit.
Interact meets in the lecture hall every Tuesday for their meetings. The sponsor of Interact, and also a member of Rotary, is nurse Jeannie Alexander.
“Interact is an organization where we engage in the community by doing service projects to help out around town,” junior president Peyton Elliott said. “We go to the local nursing home, animal shelters, and to stores to buy stuff for people in need.”
According to junior vice president Madison Loupe, absolutely anyone can join Interact, and students do not need any kind of special qualifications for it. She said members of Interact typically visit nursing homes and decide who the group will donate to. They also participate in any other projects that they do throughout the year.
“I love seeing how grateful people are when they receive gifts from us,” Loupe said. “That’s my favorite thing about Interact.”
Rotary and Interact are also pretty similar; they are both charitable and are made to help others. According to Elliott, Rotary sponsors and guides Interact.
RYLA is Rotary’s Youth Leadership Award camp that happens every January for current 11th grade students who are recognized as leaders on their campuses. Students can apply for the camp and interview with a panel of Rotarians who choose the students that attend. Orange Rotary pays for the weekend-long camp that helps teach them teamwork and leadership skills that they can use for the rest of their lives. LCM has an Interact Club because of the two students who went to RYLA in 2016 that returned to school insisting on starting a club.
“I’ve never been a member of Rotary, but I have been fortunate to attend a meeting as a guest once or twice a year with our RYLA participants or our Interact officers and it is always a joy,” Alexander said. “Rotary is full of our local businessmen and women who also value giving back in service to others in our community. They join together for a meal and hear from a speaker that sheds light on great things happening in our area or things to come. We are always appreciative of their support of our club and have enjoyed getting to partner with them for some projects over the years.”
According to Alexander, Interact is an opportunity for teens to plug into something bigger than themselves and make a difference in the lives of others.
“When students come to me with great ideas they’ve thought of or a need that they want us to meet, it makes me feel like the club is a success,” Alexander said. “We even have a past Interact officer who is now an officer in her college Rotaract Club and I’m so proud of her heart for others. In a society that pushes life is ‘all about me,’ it is a blessing to have an organization that reminds us that it is not about us at all.”
