CHS Interact Club: empowering youth through service

Members of the Interact Club stand amid their work beautifying the CHS campus on Sunday, September 22. Pictured from lefts to right, back row to front: Thayer Robison, Ben Jerome, Jonas Johnson, Caden Peterson, Cody Salmon, Jesper Koornstra, Owen Sanborn, Breigh Ragsdale, Cora Landgraf, Kaylee Radach, and Ryann Johnson. Photo credit: Roselyn Robison

"It’s a way to show our support for the school and give back to our community,” is how sophomore Cora Landgraf described the reasoning behind Cascade High School’s Interact Club’s recent campus beautification project, which involved weeding and a general cleanup of the landscaping surrounding the CHS campus. Landgraf’s explanation might have also served as a description of the Interact Club itself. 

First started at CHS during the 2016-17 school year, the Interact Club is a community service club operating under the umbrella of Rotary International, a global service society. Interact clubs are sponsored by individual Rotary clubs – in this instance, the Leavenworth club - which provide support and guidance, but are run as self-governing and self-supporting organizations. 

Interact clubs help young people develop leadership skills, learn about the world, and connect with others in their community or school while making a positive impact both locally and globally.

Interact clubs help young people develop leadership skills, learn about the world, and connect with others in their community or school while making a positive impact both locally and globally.The name “Interact” is a portmanteau from the words “international” and “action.”  

Significant projects that the CHS Interact has initiated and/or participated in the last few years include hosting American Red Cross blood drives, raising the funds to help provide shelter and other essentials for Ukrainian refugees, and hosting a benefit dinner for Dream Again Home, an orphanage in Sierra Leone. 

Senior Jaxson Groby, the Interact Club’s Vice President, described the process of organizing club works as, at times highly structured, such as blood drives, but also more organic like the campus beautification undertaking. “For our month of September project, we just pitched the idea to [CHS principal James] Swanson of a much-needed cleanup of school grounds,” elucidated Groby, who continued: “[He] agreed and then I attended a [Leavenworth] Rotary Meeting to invite its members to join us.” 

This year, the Club benefits from having Rotary-sponsored, Dutch exchange student Jesper Koornstra among its ranks. Koornstra shared that being a member of the Club “is a fun way to meet people while doing good.” 

While echoing that same sentiment, Groby, when asked if he had any final words about the CHS club, enthusiastically declared that he “had two: join Interact!” 

To get involved or learn more about the Club, see any of its officers, Ms. Robison, or visit: https://leavenworthrotary.org/sitepage/interact