Written By: Daniel Holscher, Staff Writer
COMMUNITY: The Poly High School Interact Club takes a trip up to Whispering Fountains Senior Citizen homes for some quality time with their residents.
“Serving Our Community”
Interact has been keen on taking up all and any community service acts for the members of their club to eagerly engage in. Earlier this year, Interact took part in the 137th Annual Rose Parade in California, taking volunteers to help make flowers and shape this year’s floats. Club members have also been offered opportunities to plant trees in the roots of our neighborhoods, hand out medals for daring races, and work within a toy workshop to deliver food and healthcare to struggling families in the community for the holidays. As of more recently, on February 8, 2025, the Interact Club and its members headed up north to Whispering Fountains Senior Homes to make arts and crafts and spend time with seniors in our community. Mr. Schulte, Becky Gosling, and their Poly board members President Emilio Scott and Event Organizer Jacklin Baez-Salgado run the ins and outs of these events. Interact also has the pleasure of offering students or teachers the ability to pay for songs to be sung to staff members of Poly High School as a comedic twist on their events. Around February is the time they offer the singing of love songs in this fashion. As Interact members arrive at Whispering Fountains, they engage with the elderly and learn how to be outspoken and responsible members of the community.
“The Whispering Fountains Experience”
As the Interact Club and its volunteers arrived at Whispering Fountains, they were keen on setting up a fun and engaging environment with the residents that lived there. All of the tables inside the main office were filled with bracelet-making supplies, and all Interact members were required to have a name tag with their school affiliation on it to make them easily identifiable to the seniors. When first arriving, President Emilio outlined the goals for the day, emphasizing that “today [everyone] just needs[s] to have fun and make everyone feel welcome.” As more volunteers started arriving, they were able to go around and set up the tables in preparation for the incoming seniors. “I think today is going to be a great day,” Abraham Gustafson said. “I love spending time with my grandparents, so I have a feeling I’m going to love this experience.”
As the day moved forward and bracelets and friendships were being formed, it was important to engage with the residents and make them feel welcomed to the community and cause. “Thank you guys for doing this; I love my bracelet,” Lucy, a Whispering Fountains resident, expressed. A lot of the time everyone was focused on the making of their bracelets, whether it be a simple bracelet or one with a lot of meaning; the day pressed forward. “I’ve been enjoying playing pool with Martha (a resident of Whispering Fountains) because she is super skilled at it,” Jess Semano stated when asked about his experience. As the day was coming closer to its end, the Interact Club brought in towels and raffle tickets to hand out for the closing of the event, along with 20 boxes of pizza for everyone to enjoy.
“The Interact Experience”
As the day came to a close and the residents began to leave, Interact members set out to clean up and talk to their friends about the experience. “I would say my favorite part was definitely when we got to talk to our residents and learn about their life experiences,” Bella Salgado reminisced. When taking a step over to the pizza table, many Interact members expressed that they “loved when [they] got to ask the residents for their pizza requests and serve it to them.”. As cleaning up was coming to a close, the Interact Club posed for a group photo to tie down their change in the community with their strong work ethics.
The Interact club is consistently striving for a better Poly, a better community, and a better world around us, not just stopping at the bare minimum to take care of our Earth. Whether it be planting trees and picking up trash on the beach or serving neighborhoods and packing up toys for children in need, Interact Club is always ready to take on a challenge for a better cause. President Emilio leaves with one statement on the club: “I am very honored and humbled to be the president of such a great club Poly has to offer. I love giving students here the opportunity to spend a weekend or afternoon helping our local community. This year has been amazing for the club. I hope to continue my presidential endeavors into my senior year and keep serving this amazing organization we strive with.” Thank you, Poly Interact, for being one part of such a big change in the world.