St. Charles East Interact Club Wins Award

From St. Charles CUSD 303: In its inaugural year, the St. Charles East chapter of Interact Club, the student branch of Rotary International, received the Governor's Pride Award from Rotary District 6440.

This award is given to Interact groups that make a significant difference in their communities. East's brand new club introduced a Random Acts Matter project that resulted in random acts of kindness being distributed to more than 170 students and staff who had been nominated by their peers. Recipients were nominated on an anonymous form for small reasons such as, "she makes me smile every day," to large reasons such as, "his sister has cancer, and he could really use something to cheer him up right now."

Some recipients were moved to tears when they received candy or gift baskets, delivered by Interact Club members, during the school day in March. Cafeteria worker Denise Carroll was in disbelief. "I can't even believe the kids did this for me," she exclaimed.

In addition to this project, the students in Interact Club promoted "Purple Pinkies for Polio," in which they painted students' fingernails purple for a $1 donation, and raised enough money to inoculate 100 children in third-world countries. The club also hosted a luncheon for exchange students from the entire district, helped with Rotary's Coats for Kids drive, raised money for hurricane relief, volunteered at the Northern Illinois Food Bank, and sent members to a Youth Leadership Conference.

The club hopes to expand on all of these programs and add more for 2018-2019 school year.

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