The Springdale Interact Club
Students Learn How Rewarding Serving Others Can Be
“Service Above Self” is the motto of the Springdale Interact Club. Interact is the high school version of an adult Rotary Club. In 2008 when I was President of the Deer Park Rotary Club, I put together a group of students who wanted to perform community service, which is becoming more and more important for college admission. A group of thirty students came together quickly, and four years later, the Club has matured in its varied avenues of service.
Members are engaged in support of the successful Springdale Haunted House effort each fall. They served as staff for last year’s Rotary District Conference in the Spokane Convention Center. The Club members prepared and served lunch for a Rotary Assembly on Spokane’s South Hill. The last three years, the fundraising efforts have focused on an International Service trip that ten club members, seven Rotarians and one Mary Walker High School teacher will make to Latacunga, Ecuador, in August of this year.
Recently the group provided labor for Fire District #1’s “Chipper Days.” Unloading pickup trucks numbering in the hundreds proved to be a great way to get to know our District Fire Fighters. The Club will also receive a donation towards their August Ecuador trip for their efforts.
The success of the Club is due to many factors. It has a diverse membership made up of athletes, scholars, and other students who simply find Interact to be a place of welcome and acceptance. The Mary Walker High School staff, the Deer Park Rotary Club and a select group of internal and external advisors have come together to create a magic that draws international Rotary leadership attention. High-ranking officials have addressed and counseled this vibrant student club, and more are scheduled to visit. This past February, Al Frumkin, Rotary International President’s Representative, visited the Interact Club and addressed the student body of Mary Walker High School. On October 15, 2012, Past Rotary International President, Richard D. King, will pay a visit to speak to the school assembly and counsel, along with the recently returned students from Ecuador.
Magic is the word for what is occurring with the Interact Club. New opportunities continue to arise in the community and the world at large that will keep the Springdale Interact Club busy in the years ahead. The Club has learned that service is its own reward.