JHS Interact Club has had a busy year

Abby Mitchell, Staff Writer

Throughout this school year the Jacksonville Interact Club has kept busy. With a growing number of members, the club has been able to do more service projects and get more involved than ever before! Here is a rundown of what the members have been up to this year.

For the first project of the year, the Interact Club wrapped gifts for soldiers overseas during the holidays. The students met with other volunteers from the community at Franklin Methodist Church and spent a couple of hours wrapping gifts such as puzzles, cards, and snacks.

During the month of October, we were able to attend our first Rotary District Conference! All five of this year’s officers were able to not only attend but also speak about our Interact Club during one of the sessions.

Another project the Interactors got their hands on this year was the Yuda Bands Project. This project was a project in which the club was allowed the opportunity to work with a student, Ellen, from Zimbabwe who needed financial help finishing her education. The club sold 400 handmade bracelets for $7 a piece and made almost $3,000 to put towards this one student’s education!

Additionally the club was able to host a couple different speakers, including our Rotary District Governor Tony Williams. Not only did he share with the club what being a District Governor is all about but he also told us about why Rotary is so important to him and why in turn it should be so important to us. Being able to hear from someone who has been involved with the club for so long was a really great experience for the Interactors.

During the holiday season, Interact hosted their Christmas party! The party was at the Soap Co. Coffee House and included sweets, coffee, games, and a white elephant gift exchange! It was a lot of fun for the Interactors to be able to get together and visit for the night.

In February, I was able to speak at and help run a Rotary meeting as an advocate for Interact Club. I spoke about my experiences with Interact including some projects we have done throughout the past couple of years as well as how we run our meetings and some fun activities that we like to do as a club. This was a really great experience for me, and I had a lot of fun doing it!

Another thing the club did in February was a day service project delivering meals for Bread of Love. A few members of the club took two separate vehicles and delivered meals around town. During the lunch hour, the Interact Club delivered over 30 meals to the elderly.

A small project that the club was able to do just last month was volunteering to promote a can drive for the upcoming Share the Love event. Members stood outside the doors of County Market handing out flyers and giving people more information on the event and how they could contribute.

The Interact Club has been able to accomplish a lot over this school year. We have helped serve the community while also having fun, and I hope they will be able to do the same thing next year.