Interacting with the community, working for change
In March of 2018, Interact Club had a children’s book drive; all of the donated books were given to Onward Neighborhood house.
There are so many clubs at York setting out to do extraordinary things to benefit the community. One of the many is Interact Club, a service club that is the highschool level equivalent of Rotary Club, an international service club.
For Interact Club, this year has been full of accomplishments, having collected, donated and even adopted all in the name of helping others. Because their efforts paid off, these Dukes are planning to have a lot of similar events and fundraisers next year.
Open to everyone, Interact Club looks for student ideas and participation in fundraisers and other donation-oriented events. There are no rules or guidelines to who can participate.
“I just had a young woman come up to me in the halls, saying ‘I heard the announcement about Interact club; is it too late to join?’ ” staff adviser Leslie Stipe said. “And the answer is no. You can come at any time.”
Interact Club adopted a family for Christmas 2017 from the Onward Neighborhood house, buying and wrapping presents for their adopted family.
They work with a lot of different organizations, like Wounded Warriors, Onward Neighborhood House, and in light of the tragedy in Parkland in February, Interact donated money to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School along with writing letters to students affected by the tragedy.
“I felt heartbroken for them and didn’t know what to say,” Kate Larson, vice president of Interact said when talking about writing letters to Parkland students. “When my friend posted about the letters for the community, I knew right away it was something I wanted to do and ask my community to help too!”
Students are all very involved in their service projects and all want to help the community.
During the 2017-2018 school year, Interact raised money through different fundraisers like selling caramel apple pops during lunch periods around Halloween and adopting a family for Christmas from the Onward Neighborhood House. They also hosted a mitten drive back in winter and a book drive in March, from which both sets of donations were given to the Onward Neighborhood House.
More recently, on Thurs. Apr. 19, Interact Club gave a presentation to the Elmhurst Rotary Club regarding the the charity they want to work with next year. Revelation Golf is a not-for-profit charity that uses golf to help enhance the lives of cancer survivors, people living with disabilities and youth at risk.
Members from Interact along with Leslie Stipe, the staff advisor, was awarded a donation of $1000 from Elmhurst Rotary Club.
The presentation resulted in Interact raising $1500 for Revelation Golf; $1000 came from Rotary Club and the extra $500 was a donation from an individual who was greatly moved by the representatives from Interact.
“We’re still planning to have a lot more fundraisers,” club president, William Parpan, said. “We’re definitely going to do even more next year; we also have plans to work with Revelation Golf.”
Next year, Interact is hoping to work more closely with Revelation Golf, a group that works with disabled children to help them learn how to golf.
Interact is open to everyone. They meet every other Thursday in Mrs. Stipe’s room to brainstorm and vote on service project ideas.
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