Interact Club increases worldview for students, club advisor says
Palmyra High School Interact Club was extremely busy this holiday season, and it doesn’t stop here. Interact Club holds fundraisers and events for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the Palmyra festival and more.
Interact Club Advisor Lorita Foster has been in charge of Interact Club for 10 years and says volunteering and helping the community is a true passion of hers.
“It’s something that is important to me and it’s a part of my daily life,” Foster said. “I just want [the students] to see that you feel good when you make other people feel good.”
Foster added she loves being involved with Interact because it gives her an opportunity to see another side of the students apart from academics.
“I get to encourage the students to hopefully make it part of their life when they graduate,” Foster said, adding many students participate in Interact in college.
The club’s motto is “Service Above Self,” which Foster says really reflects what Interact Club is all about.
This holiday season, one of Interact’s projects was making and delivering cards to the residents of Riverview Estates. While the club has been caroling at the estates for the past 12 years, this was the first year they decided to make cards. They hand delivered each card and took requests for favorite holiday songs to sing to the residents.
“We wear silly hats and bring our jingle bells … We just make their day,” Foster said.
Interact also held its annual Toys for Tots drive this year from Nov. 28 to Dec. 14. Foster says the drive serves as an opportunity for students to think beyond themselves and help those in need. The drive isn’t just limited to Interact Club members — teachers and students outside of the club also drop by to donate toys.
Another big event Interact participated in this school year was a breast cancer awareness walk in October. Interact participated in the walk to support a freshman student at Palmyra High School affected by breast cancer.
For Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Interact will be making blankets for Project Linus, an organization that provides handmade blankets for critically ill children. While the rest of the students are home from school on Monday, Jan. 16, Interact will be spending the morning at the high school making blankets.
Interact also helps throughout the entire year with cleanups at the Palmyra Cove Nature Park, packaging meals for the local Rotary Club, holding bingo nights at Riverview Estates and assisting with the Riverton Porch Club rummage sales, among other things.
Foster, who is a Rotarian herself, says she encourages all students at the high school to consider joining Interact Club because it’s a great way to meet new people and it adds positive social interaction to the students’ lives.
“It gives them another perspective and it gives them something positive to do to fill their day,” Foster said. “[They get] a sense of seeing that there’s a world outside of themselves and that life is good and happy and you’re blessed when you bless others.”
