Hey Guys!
So yesterday was interact day, and I have TONS to share with you. Interact Day was hosted by Royal Oaks Interact Club -- which I enjoyed, and I'll tell you how they came to host Interact Club! We were joined by at least one member of the 42 Interact Clubs across District 6380. It was a blessing to see all of these members and how they are making a change throughout the world.
I hope everyone else had fun -- and comment on this and share your reactions to the day!
For me, I met up with a ton of other RYLA friends and Interact presidents, and we all shared stories and ideas.
The day started out with breakfast, and a welcome from the Interact Chair and Rotary District Governor. Then, Ginger Barrons, who has been helping end Polio for twenty years now, showed us what Polio is, and how Rotary has been helping to stop it, and how we can help.
Purple Pinky Project: As you guys know, Rotary and Interact since 1988 have launched an eradication of Polio project. (
Rotary has successfully killed off 99% of the polio vaccine -- last year we helped, raising $200 for polio vaccines -- and one of the things they do to administer the vaccine is to dip the child’s finger in purple ink, so that they know who has been vaccinated (some don't remember, some come back twice). So many schools across the country have started the purple pinky project, educating their schools about the dangers in polio and having kids donate 60 cents to dip their fingers in the purple ink, hoping to get their whole school pinky purpled. Some schools even went as far as to sticking a red sticker on people who didn't have purple pinkies, claiming them to have polio till they got the vaccine.
This was all started by one school in Florida, and soon, the purple pinky project spread across hundreds of schools across the world.
Next, we entered into a break-out session. There were four different choices.
I attended Planning Fundraisers, where I learned how they pulled off the Purple Pinky Project, and more.
Box City: The cutest idea that some schools did - they would camp out all night, on a big road, in a box, as homeless people. Anyone could camp out; all they had to do was raise funds for a box. On the big road, everyone would stop by and see their friends, family, and see how some people live
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Hunger Games Charity Dinner: They would have this huge charity dinner, where practically everyone would receive dirty water, small portions of ugly beans, and two or three people would receive large and lavish meals, all randomized. This showed people how much they had compared to others.
The key tips to these successes were getting your interact club 100% on board. If one person doesn't want to do it, the event can spiral down. Everyone has to be honest. Rotary ensure that we can do anything with them. Everything has to be fun, in Fundraising. Good advertising is the key – sometimes mouth to mouth communication is better than posters! Awareness is also key -- announcements, repetitively, over and over works.
Other members attended an activity workshop, making cards.
The next breakout session I attended was a Presentation of Creative Ways to Work together, from Dexter's Interact club. The weirdest thing -- the entire board was all freshmen. Yet, they had the largest success, as they aren't as busy as seniors, and they meet weekly, and I got to talk to ten different clubs about how they meet, how to get more people involved. Most people meet biweekly, and they share Google docs, and for them - Facebook works. They suggested partnering with other people, (e.g. football teams) to get more participation.
Other breakout sessions included networking clubs -- We're catching up to California! Their Interact clubs all work together to pull of elaborate events. Next year, there will be an Interact 6380 District Board - 9, 10, 11 graders can run for positions! You'll meet Interactors from all over, become friends with them, and combine our clubs into the best things ever.
During Lunch, they set up a shelter box -- for more info click here that many Interact clubs in our area helped raise money for this year!
Next, Scott Harding, from National Relief Network, talked about rebuilding New Orleans. Katrina. He told first hand stories that had the entire audience on their tip toes, how the National Guard was told not to come in and rescue the victims, but Canada broke their agreement, and went in to save lives. He talked about Robert Green, one of his closest friends.
Green and his entire family, his mother, daughters, and granddaughters, could not evacuate because his mother was ill. They slept the night in the house, when his brother knocked on the door, and said that water was rising. They ran across the street, breaking through their neighbors house, to get to their second floor, but the water in the streets had rising about his waist, a 6'4 man. They then decided they had to go into the attic. Once in the attic, the water still did not stop rising, and like all attics - they were trapped. There was only one way out, and it was down. Green and his family knocked out the attic, creating a hole. They swam from roof to roofs of houses, as their roof broke off into pieces. At last, they dried off on a roof, when the roof tore them apart into two pieces. Green reached for his 4 year old granddaughter, plopped her on the roof, and went back for her sister, a couple years older, and turned around, and saw the 4 year old, slipping off the roof into a hole of swirling water darkness. His mom, a fatter woman, did not survive...they dropped her, she slipped, and she fell, and each of the 3 times rescued her and pulled her back up, but she died of coldness, on that rooftop.
and have more info.
Royal Oak hosted this interact day because of their involvement with this. The club goes down New Orleans to help rebuild, and they go wherever the need is greatest. I managed to make friends with this sophomore, just joined Interact, who sat next to me, and learned that he was going down next week to Alabama to help out. And because of the need, because they know many interact clubs are smaller than theirs; they offered, anyone, next year, in any Interact club, to join them. To go and save lives.
After this, I met with the leaders of Rotary and Interact, to discuss the future of RYLA and the St. Judes Project. There were two more breakout sessions which I didn’t attend; I hope other people will share what they did.