Rome High School Interact Club students joined Rome Rotary, Thursday September 23, at the Coosa Country Club for their noon meeting.
It’s truly never too early to instill the values of compassion and selfless service. Thanks to clubs like the Interact Club at Rome High School, these values are a thriving part of extracurricular experience. The Interact Club is a branch of Rotary Youth Programs, basically a high school Rotary Club.
Sarah Brown, Rome High School Honors Astronomy teacher and Advisor to the Interact Club, explained the mission of the Interact Club, “Rooted in the fact that Rotary is a community service organization,” she explained, “not only does Interact help the students to make relevant connections with community service providers and community leaders, but it helps them zoom out to what's going on outside of the school building and figure out how they can be helpful to the community; not just to the person in the desk beside them, but also to the family down the street.” Brown was also in attendance at the Rome Rotary meeting.
Every year Rotary Clubs statewide sponsor Camp RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awakening), a retreat experience that works to instill the value of service above self, involving work with leadership and character development.
“It is leadership focused and they do a lot of team-building activities while at camp,” Brown explained. “They hear many inspirational motivational speakers, and I believe they also participate in activities that build their own confidence in their own leadership skills.”
Each year local Rotary Clubs sponsor students within the Interact Clubs to attend.
Brown said that when Rome Rotary reached out to her and offered to sponsor students to attend the camp, she had a few students in mind. Kristen Jones was one of those students and ended up being the only student to attend from Rome High School. During the meeting, Rome Rotary recognized Jones and her accomplishment in receiving the Camp RYLA Award. There were 250 attendees in the district’s 2021 retreat.
Membership with the Interact Club is always open to students. “Right now, we’re trying to build up some membership among underclassmen,” Brown said. “We really want the club to continue once my leaders graduate this coming spring.”
For more information about how to get involved with the Interact Club, please contact Ms. Brown at RHS.
Congratulations, Kristen and Go Wolves!!!