Huntington High School’s energetic Interact Club dove into a community service activity with Jefferson Primary School students on a recent afternoon.
Interact is always searching for opportunities to work with more members of the community and help encourage people to be kind and give service above self. It’s an opportunity that easily presented itself at Jefferson.
The high school teenagers and the Jefferson youngsters quickly bonded with one another. The goal at Jefferson was to build friendships and develop durable connections with an eye toward collaborating on future projects. Interact Club members taught third grade leadership team members how to go about making rafiki bracelets.
Rafiki means “friend” in Swahili. As the afternoon activity unfolded, the third graders and the teenagers inspired one another with their upbeat personalities and desire to help others. The bracelets were later sold during a pizza and game night fundraiser at Jefferson.
“Several Interact members were part of the fourth grade leadership team when they attended Washington Primary School,” said Interact Club faculty advisor Linda Costello-Roth.
This year’s Interact Club executive board includes Bella DiBenedetto (president), Bella Algieri (vice president), Alexa Amorison (secretary) and Alexandra Kustera (treasurer).
Interact also pitched in to help out at Jefferson’s Family Fun Night. The club members were joined by National Honor Society and volunteers from Young Leaders, a community youth development organization.
A Rotary International program for teenagers, Interact strives to carry out hands-on projects and offers members a chance to make international connections, develop leadership skills and have fun while making a positive difference in the world.
The Huntington club is open to any student in the building. There are nearly 20,400 Interact chapters comprised of about 470,000 members in 159 countries. Supported by the local Rotary Club, the high school chapter’s goal is to carry out at least two service projects a year, one local and the other aiding an international organization providing assistance to those in need.
Huntington’s Interact Club intends to keep collaborating with the elementary youngsters. “There are several activities planned for the students to get together over the next few months,” Ms. Costello-Roth said.
Contact Ms. Costello-Roth (lroth@hufsd.edu) for more information about the Huntington High School Interact Club chapter.
