Last week Odessa Rotary held a Charter Banquet for the Interact Club. It took a lot of planning, but despite a few goofs here and there (the biggest one coming from a deceptively two-sided script), but it was an amazing night for our students. I’m really proud of what Rotary has accomplished.
Here’s the text of what I said at the banquet:
Abby, our president, pinned the girls and Trace, the vice president, pinned the boys. They had some funny reactions.
Thank you all for coming tonight to the charter banquet for the Interact Club of Odessa High School. As we’ve said, I’m Hannah Spaar, a 2009 OHS graduate and the chair of the Interact Committee.
Tonight is a celebration of our first Interactors, the effort it has taken to get this club started, and the potential for this club to continue improving our community for years to come.
Driven by the chance to spread Rotary’s values with the youth in our community, we began this effort more than a year ago. I began researching the club and working with district administration to lay the ground work, and was soon joined by committee members Dennis HEE-seck and Dawn Jennings. Crisa Seals and John Carmody joined us as our teacher sponsors, not only working extremely hard to keep the club running between meetings but also setting incredible examples to our students through their own service.
Forming the Interact Club has been a really fun, inspiring, arduous project. These three pictures at the top were taken by John Carmody.
A few of the people who have helped us aren’t with us tonight, but still deserve credit: Bob Brinkley, our former superintendent and one of our Rotarians, who immediately said yes and opened doors for us; Terry Stever, who ultimately decided to step away from the project but who suggested our two teacher sponsors and Allison Maple, an OHS graduate who participated in the collegiate version of Interact and gave some insight to our committee; Brad Briscoe, who guided us through the process at OHS.
Personally, I saw the club as a way to help high schoolers know how to make a difference. I’d recently been told by a classroom of students that they believed the world is as it is, out of their control, and there is nothing they can do about it.
That isn’t what I grew up believing, because it wasn’t what I was told. I started thinking about how we can make sure that students know the truth that I think is best summed up in this Margaret Mead quote:
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”
We appreciated Marc Horner, our district governor, coming out to speak.
Through Interact, we’re not just going to tell the students to change the world for the better, we’re going to teach them how to do it. Each year, students will organize and carry out two large service projects, one for the school or community, the other something that will improve international understanding. We will be with the Interactors every step of the way, helping them know how to budget and promote a project, raise money, get the necessary permissions and follow through. But the ideas and the work will be their own. I keep telling them, mostly as a warning, but they aren’t even able to accept donations. Anything they receive, they must earn, whether through money or work.
Most of all, students will learn to serve, whether it is to the club, those they will someday work alongside, the community, internationally or to future generations. Odessa High School graduates have accomplished great things. I have no doubt that by the time this club’s time is over, its alumni will include college athletes, CEOs of large corporations and state or even federal politicians. But I am even more sure that this club’s alumni will go on to be small business owners, school board members, Outreach board members, Rotarians and Optimists, mayors, and more roles that are deeply important to our community but require hard work and service.
Interact Families, I want you to know how impressed I have been by your children. We have great students who have worked hard in concession stands, broken ability barriers, taken on leadership roles and worked to promote the club, and we’ve only had them for a few months. I’m excited to keep working with these students toward their goals and keep pushing them to see what they can do.
The shining faces of our Interactors who were able to make it! We have 30 members total.