By Mark Valdes, Staff Writer
SERVICE: Service comes in many different forms, including clubs.
Most people love their communities and would go to great lengths to support them in many different ways. I am a part of the Poly High School Interact club, where we focus on positivity and promote healthy ways to aid your community. Club president Nayomi Resendiz keeps in contact with rotary, the Interact Club’s sponsor, while also helping the rest of the cabinet for Interact come up with ideas on how to get students involved in community service.
An example of this is the Syria Project, which allows students to go on zoom calls with struggling individuals from Syria and engage in intriguing conversation. Syria has a 10 hour time difference, so meetings are every other Saturday at 10am. Since the whole world is in a pandemic, the Syria Project’s goal is to help people learn new things by comparing their viewpoints and experiences to those of people from around the world.
Another event organized by the Interact Club is October’s COVID drive, where club members donated kits and Halloween candies that were given to needy families to ease their financial burden. Some of the items in the kits consisted of hand sanitizer, disinfectant wipes and spray, and disposable masks. These kits directly aided people who couldn’t afford to protect themselves from the virus, helping to slow the spread of the disease.
Interact Club has also made “get well” posters and card projects which are designed to show the patients suffering from COVID-19 that there is still indeed hope, and that their recovery is possible. These uplifting posters are aimed to lessen their despair and let them know that, while they may be physically isolated, there are many people around them cheering them on. Everyone deserves a chance to be heard and given a chance to survive this pandemic. Currently we are all split apart, but we should be brought back together in a safe and helpful way. Isn’t it inspiring to know that a club is doing that right now?
Everyone needs hope and this club aims to provide it for everyone. Seeing students go out and try to make the world a better place in of itself is a very inspiring thing to do for the community by showing people that we indeed can raise from these dark times. Remember that even the smallest things can have lasting effects on people and that we are capable of doing anything. Go Poly Bears!