Written by Kathryn Burke, Staff Writer
On Saturday, March 28th, Poly High School’s Interact Club community service group went to the March Air Force base to assist in feeding homeless veterans.
Interact is a Rotary club dedicated to youth leadership, providing them with opportunities for community service and international understanding. The ROTARY club serves numerous communities and organizations throughout the school year, allowing interactors to volunteer for events that “best fits their ambitions or specialties”, shared by Daniel Holscher, president of the club at Poly.
While students prepped the scene with tables full of food at 11:30am, and smiling expectations to form new connections with veterans, there was an expressed worry of food handling. Fortunately, all of the food was served hot and packaged very well with the care from the volunteers, with an easter egg to truly lighten veterans days and spark a bit of youth through the community. Interacters such as Bella Salgado, vice president of the club, express the biggest takeaway of the event being the “experiences and conversations” received. Though some hadn’t stayed long, majority were searching for someone to listen and appreciate their voice, in which all interacters provided them with such. Other Rotary Volunteers described the environment being very welcoming, with music and friendly chatter, as well with the excitement and interests in “future plans.”
The intentions with the event were to bring an although small village, closer with more security, ensuring that the veterans are positively affected by the service. Poly leaders there ensured the importance of getting to know the veterans, opening ears and perspectives, “respecting those who fought for this country without the financial resources to support themselves”, Bella. The ability to not only feed veterans but listen to their experiences, with open ears and hearts, with Daniel noting it as, without a doubt, a “beautifully positive experience” for everyone, especially veterans with their inclination to form close relationships with the youth. The greater hope is for the veterans that were fed to take home that positive attitude, influencing their overall perspective to be optimistic, creating a ripple effect throughout the county.
The Rotary club has planned various activities throughout the school year, such as keeping Riverside clean and beautiful, handing out medals for finished runners, and beach cleanups. Each event takes countless planning, majority done by Daniel through “connections within the community” and “deep digging into non profit community-driven organizations” that allow for growth in students. Though not all opportunities go as planned, Daniel stresses the importance of “leading by example”, further encouraging students to contribute to their own decisions towards “their leadership experiences.” When services unfortunately take a turn, members of the Rotary club demonstrate their resilience with their positive mindset and perseverance to continue to spread love, understanding, and encouragement through communities.
There are many more opportunities like this provided by the Interact club, with GoogleClassroom, emails from the president, and social media posts being the best way to ensure notice of said events. Their instagram handle is “rivpolyinteract”, if you are interested.