|
Today we had the pleasure of hearing from a few of the Interact students who returned just twelve hours before from the RI Convention in Houston. They carried with them their notebook/journals of their experiences. Ten of the 18 incoming interact Board members attended the convention thanks to Rohan's mother, Raje Kantamneni.. Doris Xie also donated money so the students make the most of their time. Rohan's mother and grandmother joined the teens for one of the service projects - Medical Bridges. The students were able to talk with them about Rohan, his vision for the Club and the projects that meant the most to him - hosting and supporting Special Olympics. It's a project the teens hope to start up again. Previously, Rohan's initials were on the Club t-shirts, now "Rohan" is printed on their sleeves. With all that in mind, they shared with us the excitement and magic of being at the opening ceremony and seeing all the flags from around the world paraded. They were able to meet the RI President-Elect Jennifer Jones - the first (but not last) woman RI President! When asked if she would honor them to be in a picture with them, she told them she was more excited and honored to be in a picture with them! As one of three Interact Clubs attending, they also spent time with Rotaract members who reminded them of not only the local projects they do, but the global work of Rotary as well. They were able to connect to other groups via Zoom. Will Holzer, the incoming president of the Board, told us about the Medical Bridges service project they worked on with Rohan's mother and grandmother. Will talked about the medical supplies and equipment near expiration that was donated and needed to be sorted, placed on pallets, then into shipping crates for countries like Haiti, New Guinea and Ukraine. Some Rotarians were painting the outside of the shipping containers white with the Red Cross symbol on them so they can be utilized as mobile hospitals for those countries as well. Some items that were very close to expiring, were redirected to less fortunate areas of the U.S. He would like to see the club help establish a project like this here in the area since we have Walgreens, Baxter and Abbott in the area. Jagger Barnes is the incoming vice-president who shared with us how much they had learned about Rotary and the building of new friendships. They brought bracelets that they shared with people they connected with. Two bracelets were given, one for the new acquaintance and one for the acquaintance to share with someone else. Lili Richter a co-director of events for next year, said she and the others were energized by the speakers, Kailash Satyarthi from India who received a Nobel Peace Prize for his work on preventing child trafficking and another Nicole Kenya from Honduras about how important your community is and to how to design the welcome of new members. Anna Neblo is the other co-director and she loved the team building exercises. She also loved getting a sense of the international aspect of Rotary. She loved how the collective strategies could bring about action and change. Ida said she was so proud of the students. Each day they reflected on what they learned, and how they can be a part of the change. This was why the notebooks were so important. Not only did they take notes during the day, but at the end of the day they reflected on their own feelings and thoughts and then shared these reflections with the rest of the team in the morning. She declared them a fierce group of leaders With the completion of 39 projects in the last year, they feel this helped them know the power of supporting our community. Other take-aways from their time in Houston are: the seeing and hearing the different languages, dress and cultures, the overwhelming acts of kindness, connecting with incredible people and learning how their work impact their community. The students thanked us for setting them up for successful Club, even enjoying our attendance at their senior night. We hope to work with them on community projects in the coming year! left to right: Anna Neblo, Lili Richter, Ida Fiore, Jagger Barnes, Will Holzer |
