Interact Club organizes at Early College High School | Eastern North Carolina Now

Press Release:

    Students at the Beaufort County Early College High School hope to increase their involvement in community service with the start this year of an Interact Club based at the high school.

    The new, provisional club has attracted some 40 members drawn from students ranging in age from freshman to fifth-year seniors to an organizational meeting held on the BCCC campus earlier this month.

    The club is being sponsored by the Washington Noon Rotary Club.

    Officers in the new club include Ronnie James, president; Kyle Pontieri, vice president; Quierra Ross, secretary; Norvia Jennette, treasurer; Alyssa Peed, public relations. Steven Wood, a member of the Washington Noon Rotary Club, serves as Rotarian advisor to the club. High School faculty advisors are Amanda Smith and Katherine Alligood.

    "We are excited about establishing this club because we wanted to get our students involved in the community," said Smith. "And, with Interact and its connection to Rotary International we are excited about the opportunity the club gives our students to learn about different cultures."

    The club's first scheduled projects are a canned food drive for Eagles Wings, volunteering for an upcoming international festival and establishing an exchange with a high school in Ireland.
Interact is Rotary International's service club for young people ages 12 to 18. Interact clubs are sponsored by individual Rotary clubs, which provide support and guidance, but the clubs are self-governing and self-supporting.

    As one of the most significant and fastest-growing programs of Rotary service, with more than 10,700 clubs in 109 countries and geographical areas, Interact has become a worldwide phenomenon.

    Each year, Interact clubs complete at least two community service projects, one of which is international in scope.

    Through these efforts, Interactors, as club members are called, develop a network of friendships with local and overseas clubs and learn the importance of developing leadership skills and personal integrity, demonstrating helpfulness and respect for others, understanding the value of individual responsibility and hard work and advancing international understanding and goodwill.

    Once the new club meets the Rotary International requirements for official charter as an Interact Club, its members will join nearly 200,000 other young people worldwide who are involved in Interact.
Pictured above: Ronnie James, president of the Beaufort County Early College High School provisional Interact Club, is congratulated on his election by Steven Wood, Rotarian advisor to the club.