Rotary’s Interact Club Has The ‘Gift of Giving’!

By: Devan Mighton, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Lakeshore News Reporter

For a child, learning valuable lessons, like community, charity, leadership, humanity, and volunteerism, is as good as gold. For the young members of the Interact Club of LaSalle, the youth-extension of the Rotary Club of LaSalle Centennial, the holiday season has proven to be the learning tree for these future leaders of our community.

“The Interact Club of LaSalle is a youth service organization that allows youth, ages 12-18, to volunteer, while building valuable leadership skills and growing international understanding,” explains local Rotary Club director of youth services Christina Guido, who also supervises the Interact Club of LaSalle. “Our club has been active for youth in our community since 2017 [and] is an outlet for youth to be able to make a difference in their community and internationally, build connections, grow international understanding, and resume building through valuable leadership skills.”

Kids in the Interact Club routinely participate in leadership conferences, such as the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards and Youth2Youth, which specializes in bridging the divide between Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth to build understanding.

All club projects, fundraisers, and initiatives are planned and carried out by the members of the youth club, as they support their community through many endeavours, including park and trail clean-ups, collecting backpacks for youth in need, sponsoring a family during the holidays, and helping international communities as well. Examples of this include collecting soccer uniforms for programs in Ethiopia, Ghana, Tanzania, Malawi, and Guatemala, and purchasing school uniforms for children in Brazil.

One of the group’s favourite endeavours is the ‘Gift of Giving’. The event was rooted in 2017, when the Interact Club of LaSalle started sponsoring children through the St. Andrew’s Anglican Church Food Bank to help them buy their Christmas gifts. Guido reports that the Interact Group routinely sponsors between three and five local children each year, making their Holiday Season that much brighter!

“This year, which would be the eighth year of this initiative, our club sponsored a family from the community,” she says. “We went to Toys’R’Us together to purchase the gifts and wrapped them. It is one of the youth’s favourite initiatives that they do.”

This initiative, like the good works, locally and internationally, that the Interact Club of LaSalle does, is possible due to the amazing fundraising efforts that the kids in the club do. Their biggest fundraiser is their Movie Night, which runs at the beginning of June.

“[The Interact Club of LaSalle] is a great way for youth to meet like-minded individuals and grow friendships. Also, all work done with our club – coming and participating in meetings, planning and executing projects, fundraising, etc. – can go towards satisfying the 40 community service hours needed for high school.”

Interact Club of LaSalle meetings are every other Saturday at 10:30 a.m. at the LaSalle Hangout for Youth. Their meetings are always open for people to join. If you are interested, please email Christina Guido at interactclublasalle@gmail.com.