Pace Interact Club giving back to community

PACE — Pace High School’s Interact Club has been busy this month.

The group shopped for Christmas gifts for eight disadvantaged kids in the community, they made blankets for five residents at Victorian Manor, the participated in Wreaths Across America for the fourth year and and they delivered dog toys made of old T-shirts to the Humane Society. They also worked at Cookies with Santa, a fundraiser hosted by the Pace Rotary Club.

“The Interact Club is dedicated to community service,” said Kelly Moore, a member of the Pace Rotary Club who sponsors the Interact Club along with Pace teacher Kim McDonald. “Interact gives students an opportunity to participate in meaningful service projects while developing leadership skills.”

Essentially the Rotary Club wants to teach students the importance of giving back and becoming productive members of the community. The motto for both organizations is “Service Above Self.”

For the third year in a row, Interact and ESE students donated dog toys made of old T-shirts because they love dogs.

According to Moore, this past summer Interact members decided to make blankets for residents of nursing homes that did not have families. Victorian Manor nursing home gave them five names of residents that met the club’s criteria. When the Rotary Club found out what the students were doing, they decided to add new pajamas, socks and lotion to the blanket gifts.

The disadvantaged students they shopped for were selected by Santa Rosa County schools; club members did not know their names and said they could have been from any school.

Rotarians from the Pace Rotary volunteer for all the activities with the Interact Club. Moore wanted thank Rotarians Jennifer Biles and Stan Sauls for the volunteer work they do with Interact Club’s student leadership to host bi-monthly meetings and volunteer activities.

The club is free and has no required grade point average to join. Members receive a T-shirt after they participate in at least one service project.