Musings of a Former President 9/27/2016

    Last week’s meeting featured some classification talks and a really good exchange of ideas about Interact.  As the years have passed it seems that Interact at Biddeford High School has become more about earning points than about really caring about helping the community.  That may be symptomatic of students being pulled in too many directions or it may indicate a faculty leader who is tired.  It could be that students are more concerned about their resumes than the projects presented to them, or it could be a failure on the part of our club to realize that the Interact energy was diminishing and we failed to properly engage the students.

 

    It would seem that with Sarah Neault’s leadership and Jackson’s past Interact experience and the ideas expressed in the club last week we do have the opportunity to bring Interact back to the vibrant active organization that it has been.  It may take the commitment of all of us to more fully involve the students in our projects while making sure that we get involved in theirs.  Interact, like Rotary, should be more than just being a member of a club that looks good on a resume.  I am convinced that we can properly convey that message to the Biddeford High School students and get the BHS Interact Club back to being the student led force in the community that it once was, but if Sarah and others ask for the club’s help we need to be willing to give it.

 

 

 

    If you were not at the meeting we also discussed the request from UNE to work with over 600 students to pull off a community project of some sort on October 15.  We did not have much notice for this request.  We threw out the idea of having the biggest bottle drive ever to support a cause important to both UNE and our club.  If anyone has other ideas on how we could engage 600 students with just 2 weeks to plan please let Lucie know.  It is not often that you have 600 volunteers willing to step up and help so we should really try to take advantage of the opportunity.

 

    Have a great week.  Bill