Small Acts with Big Impacts: AHS's Interact Club

Interact Club is one of the most popular clubs here at AHS. 

Mrs. Foster, a Spanish teacher at our school, is the head advisor. She mentioned, “About 8 years ago, the advisers decided to step down, and since I was a Rotarian and the Rotary Club of Aurora wanted to connect with AHS so what was formerly Key Club transitioned into Interact Club.”

Interact Club does a variety of different activities and service work, trying to get students involved and giving back to their community. 

Marla Edgecomb is a senior this year and has been in the club for all 4 years of high school. Being treasurer of the club last year, decided to run for president this year. She stated, “I wanted to be a club advisor so I could have a more active role in the club. Being a member all of high school, I've had a good understanding of how the club works and I wanted the opportunity to give back to the community I'd been a part of the last few years.” As President of the club, she helps Mrs. Foster with a variety of different things. “I communicate with Mrs. Foster regarding plans for the monthly meetings and ideas for volunteer activities we can do in the community. When I was treasurer, I was responsible for logging the hours of all members of the club.”

Interact club meets once a month, usually on the first Wednesday of the month. Lillian Tomasko, the club secretary, shares what the meetings consist of: “Sometimes it’s just announcements, sometimes we have a guest speaker, and sometimes we do some community service, like when we filled bags with food and a note for the homeless.” Since a lot of members of the club are a part of different sports and other clubs, the Interact Club gives them a low-commitment opportunity to get involved with the school and their community. 

Henrique Soares is a senior here at AHS and is an exchange student from Brazil. He mentioned, “I always wanted to do an exchange to learn more about different cultures and be an ambassador of peace for my country.” 

Henrique was part of a very similar club in Brazil; they did all sorts of things just like AHS’s Interact Club. “At my club in Brazil, we had weekly meetings to develop our projects, some of which included helping retirement homes, providing education to underprivileged kids, raising money for the battle against Polio, promoting blood drives, and many others,” he shared. Since the Interact Club was so similar, he decided to join it. He stated, “ I decided to join the club because I wanted to continue to help people and society through volunteering and service while also making connections that last a lifetime.” 

Although the two clubs are similar, they have their differences as well. Henrique shared, “The biggest difference I see between the two clubs is that here it is linked to a school while in Brazil we are independent. Another is that we have a much smaller number of members reaching only around 20 volunteers while here we are past 200, but of those 20 all have a different position and are important inside the club. My club back home holds a special place in my heart and I believe this club will too, but I think they could both improve by learning something about their differences.”

One last thing he mentioned was, “I believe that being a part of Interact can change the way a person thinks about others while providing service to your community; it is a great opportunity to grow as a person, prepare yourself for adult life, and be a leader.” And that is completely true. Interact Club is a way to meet new people, and do so many good deeds inside of your community.