L to R: W.P. Wagner Interact Club, Simar Sidhu (Secretary); Zalak Simar (Vice-President); Abinash Saravanan (President); Carin Jansen van Vuuren (President) and Richard Karlsson (Interact Club Liaison)
This past week we welcomed Abinash Saravanan, the President of the W.P. Wagner High School Rotary Interact Club. He and two other members of the club, Zalak Simar, Vic-President and Simar Sidhu, Secretary were introduced by Richard Karlsson, their Rotary club advisor. Richard told us that Rotary Interact Clubs are for students aged twelve to eighteen. They are self-governing clubs, sponsored by a Rotary club which are expected to support at least two service projects per year with one of these being an international project.
Abinash began by thanking our club for our support and guidance. He said that their club currently has about sixty members, thirty of whom are very active. He said that over this past year he has been blown away by their collective talents and abilities. He told us that in the fall their club decided to clean up the ravine behind their school as a community support project. They called for volunteers to come out on a weekend and managed to pick up over forty kilograms of waste in only a few hours. Their second project was to go to the Edmonton Food Bank on a weekend and help to sort and pack food. They had a very good turn out and had a lot of fun doing it. They then decided to have a fundraiser for charity by their club before Christmas with a Candygram promotion. A Candygram is a small note attached to a candy cane or cookie. The purchaser then writes the name of the person they wish to send it to along with the classroom number and time it can be delivered. The club members then deliver the candygrams to the recipients. Their club set up two teams to help with all of the promotions, poster production, sales and delivery of the candygrams. Overall the project was a great success and they raised seven hundred and seventy dollars for charity. This money will be donated through Rotary to a charity of their club’s choice. They are presently promoting a local project to collect gently used coats for people in need in Edmonton. If any of our members would like to help we can contact Richard for more information.
Abinash said that his first year in Rotary has been very inspiring for him. He said that Rotary gives people who have a passion to help others the ability to do much more than one person alone can do. We would like to thank Abinash for his very eloquent and interesting update on activities of the W.P. Wagner Interact Club.