Rotary Interact clubs bring high school students together to develop leadership skills. There are over 14,000 Interact clubs over 145 countries. India has over 7,000 Interact clubs. The US has over 5,000. Interact allows high school students to be part of a large international program that focuses on service above self.
The decisions, leadership, and service projects in each Interact club are completely organized and run by high school students.
Here are some examples of what worldwide Interact clubs are doing:
An Interact Club in India is participating in a big way in the Seed Balls Project, working together to plant 1 million trees.
In Brazil, an interact club started a social media movement to counteract suicide. They promoted self-care and spread positivity through challenges to help at-risk youth find value in themselves. They reached over 30,000 people through Facebook.
The Hugh Boyd High School club in Canada won an Interact Video award and they are involved in many endeavors including Festival of Trees, Ice Skate for Polio, Ambassador for Peace United Model UN, local food drives, and they were able to participate in building a daycare in South Africa.
There is also a lot of amazing work being done locally:
Our own District 5110 Interact Projects have included local fire relief. In Summer 2021, students may have an opportunity to go on a fire relief service trip.
At Elmira High School, the Interact club received a grant for a Farm to School program ($91,000) and they are teaching and training students and community members to develop a self-sustaining and healthy community.
Grants Pass raised over $10,000 to fund the Thirst Project in Africa. Four students were selected to go to Africa to install a well when travel restrictions have passed.
South Eugene Interact Statistics:
- Weekly Wednesday Zoom meetings and a (usual) summer retreat
- 22 students attend meetings, 40 members total
- 7 board members who average 30 hours a week of service work total
- A cool website created by South Eugene interactors: https://sehsrotaryinteract.org/
- Their 2019 project was the Beauty & Beast project. They worked with Actor’s Cabaret to have 200 guests from low-income families see the show. They also raised money to put together gift bags for each guest.
- Their 2020 project has been an online tutoring program for K-8th grade students. They have 23 tutors and 34 kids so far.
- In the past, South has put on many fundraisers and organized many cool projects. One favorite is a birthday party project that focuses on kids who otherwise would not celebrate because of homelessness or other issues. The club has continually sponsored a young woman (Probina) from Peru who is now going to college in Nepal.
Watch the full presentation about the project here.