Congratulations Interact Club!

Tonight was our celebration of our new Elizabethtown Interact Club! About 60 students, parents, Rotarians and guests gathered to officially inaugurate this new club.

Here are my words to the Interact Club...

I would like to congratulate you young people. In establishing this Interact Club you are joining a family of over 250,000 students and 1.2 million Rotarians internationally in the world’s oldest service organization.

Rotary International began on a cold February night in 1905 in Chicago when 4 businessmen met in order share fellowship and to “network “. They met on a regular basis and rotated from one person’s place of business to another, thus the name Rotary Club. Within 2 years, the Rotary Club had grown and established the idea of providing service to their community. The earliest service projects included buying a horse for a local doctor and providing public toilets in downtown Chicago.

Within decades the Rotary Club concept had spread internationally. Business ethics became a fundamental concept in 1932 when Rotary adopted the 4 way test. We still recite this at our meetings today. In the 1950’s Rotary adopted its official motto “Service above Self”.

In 1962, the first Interact Club was established in Melbourne, FL. Interact is a service club for high school aged youth, sponsored by an individual Rotary Club, but self governing and self supporting.

Interact’s name is a combination of the words international and action. Today there are over 11,000 Interact Clubs in over 120 countries. Interact membership is over a quarter million worldwide.

So why establish an Interact Club at Elizabethtown High School? Because I firmly believe that this generation of young people embraces the idea of service to others. I saw this over the summer when some of you attended the youth conference in New Orleans. As part of a community service component of the conference, our youth from Elizabethtown were told that they would attend a presentation about Hurricane Katrina. They decided that attending a presentation was NOT community service and took it upon themselves to blow off the program, go shopping to purchase food and drink, and serve it to the homeless people living in cardboard boxes under the freeways in downtown New Orleans. Taking peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and Powerade out into some toughest areas of a strange city in the hot and humid southern weather was truly Service Above Self in action.

I knew we really needed to harness and support this spirit of service in this generation here in Elizabethtown. After all, our theme for this Rotary year is “The Future of Rotary is in Your Hands”. These young people are our future and they are taking the idea of Service Above Self by the horns.

To the Interact Club, I encourage you to make this club everything you want it to be. Our Rotary Club will totally stand behind you and support your goals. Reach out to those in need. Work with youth in another country to develop a service project. Make friends and learn about the customs and culture of a faraway place. Serve the Etown School District and the Elizabethtown community. These are all possible. With Interact being part of the Rotary family, you have the tools and the connections to Change the World in ways that only you can imagine. No project is too big or too small. According to the saying by Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” You have already taken that first step by starting this Interact Club, now enjoy the journey!