Huntington High School’s Interact Club is in the midst of a friendly food drive competition against neighboring Walt Whitman High School. The drive will run through Friday, December 18. Drop-off boxes have been placed in the main lobby. They are labeled by grade and staff. Students and teachers are encouraging each other to participate.
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.
Linda Costello-Roth serves as the Huntington High School Interact Club’s faculty advisor. The club’s members include a great group of energetic young people who work tirelessly to make every initiative a success, including the competitive food drive.
The club’s executive board consists of Isabella DiBenedetto (president), Isabella Algieri (vice president), Alexa Amorison (secretary) and Ally Kustera (treasurer).
“Interact has been such a rewarding and huge part of my high school career,” Ms. Algieri said. “Mrs. Roth has guided us amazingly in helping the community. For our current project we are competing with Walt Whitman High school. The school that collects the most food for the drive will win a really awesome trophy. We really hope that a little healthy competition will encourage our peers to donate in order to benefit our community during the holiday season.”
The Huntington club is open to any student in the building. There are nearly 15,000 Interact chapters comprised of about 342,953 members in 145 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.
“I’ve been a member of this club since my freshman year and it has been one of my favorite parts of high school,” Ms. DiBenedetto said. “Obviously because of the pandemic we couldn’t do our normal activities, such as making rafiki bracelets and thank you cards with the third grade leadership teams, so we had to think outside of the box to find a fun and safe service activity for the club to get involved in. We wanted to do something that could get all students involved and try to find a fun way of doing it. We thought a competition would encourage people to participate. I’m confident that the drive will be a success and I look forward to seeing how it ends up.”
The Huntington club is open to any student in the building. There are nearly 15,000 Interact chapters comprised of about 342,953 members in 145 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 Interact meets on the first and third Wednesday of each month at 7 p.m. via either Zoom or Google Meets. To participate in the club’s Remind app messages text @interacthu to 81010.
Contact Mrs. Costello-Roth (lroth@hufsd.edu) for more information about the Huntington High School Interact Club chapter.