If you’ve been looking for an opportunity to volunteer or take part in community service, and interact and enjoy fellowship with other teens, then the new Rotary Interact Club is for you. Interact is a branch of Rotary International that is run by high schools all over the world. There are about 330,000 youth involved in more than 14,500 Interact clubs worldwide. The club name Interact comes from a combination of the two words: “international,” a word pertaining to two or more countries, and the word “action,” the process of doing something, typically to a achieve a goal. The goal of the club is to offer fun service opportunities and promote the Rotary International goal of “Service Before Self.”

Interact at Ledyard High School held its very first meeting in late March of this year. LHS Interact began to formulate following the events of the October Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) in Guilford, Connecticut (see the “Hey RYLA?” article published earlier this year). Juniors Ben Vajdos and Mikayla Fors were attendants at RYLA with Vajdos being a team member and Fors being a participant. A team member at RYLA is a teen leader and counselor to participants, the ones experiencing RYLA for the first time. At RYLA, people from all over Southern Connecticut are sponsored through their local Rotary Clubs and Interact Clubs at their high schools. Through meeting and talking with fellow participants and team members about Interact, Vajdos and Fors wanted to introduce Interact to LHS. Soon after the RYLA weekend, Vajdos and Fors got right to work meeting with members of the Ledyard Rotary Club, as well as officers of other Interact clubs and the RYLA chairpeople. Lastly, they sought out the support from their fellow classmates to help establish Interact and to join the club. At long last, the Interact club was formulated with Vajdos as President and Fors as Vice President. When asked about goals and hopes for the club, Vajdos stated, “I personally hope the club will continue after I’m gone to be a fun service club… As far as the club itself, I hope it’ll make Rotary more of a presence in LHS.” Interact at Ledyard is seeking to achieve the “service before self” and promote goodwill. The Interact club plans to have a kick-off party on May 18 (date subject to change) at Blonder’s Park for anyone that would like to learn more about Interact or to enjoy food, fun, and fellowship.

Noah Cayangyang, Staff Writer

Sophomore Noah Cayangyang is a staff writer for the 2017-2018 Colonel. He plays on the soccer and track teams at Ledyard. Noah is also the guitarist in what most people refer to as a “mildly decent band” and FUN FACT: he will *die* if you give him peanuts. Do not feed the wild Cayangyangs.