At Methacton, there’s no shortage of ways to get involved in service projects or the community – NHS, Key Club, Kids Against Crisis, and more. But the newest ambitious way to help people is with the Interact Club. Founded as a partnership between Methacton and the Collegeville Rotary Club, the Interact has serious potential to help not only the local community, but the global community as well.

Methacton had an Interact Club in the past, but due to a lack of support, it ended. This year, the club has been revived by Meredith Martz and it’s set to reach heights it never made before.

Before we get into what Interact has already been doing, we need to talk about what makes them different, starting with the Rotary. The Rotary is an international organization of community service groups, community leaders, and small businesses that want to make their area and other areas a better place to live in. Organized by local area, the Rotary has over 1.4 million active members. They mainly help further their goal of a more happy and healthy world by organizing community events like fundraisers and food drives, but they also sponsor members with scholarships and send worldwide donations to places in need.

Rotary was founded in 1905, but the first Interact club was founded in 1962. Interact was set up as a way for students to get involved with Rotary through school clubs in order to increase the number of people who could help. Since its founding, Interact has done what Rotary does, community service through a number of different ways, but in more recent years they’ve branched out to provide students with new perspectives on the world. The most common program that an Interact club supports for this effort is a student exchange program. Students from Interact clubs across the country will trade places with counterparts in other countries for part of or all of a year to gather new perspectives on the world.

Methacton’s Interact hopes to continue the tradition of service like other Interact clubs across the world. Already, Methacton sponsors two students every year to participate in the leadership camp “Camp Neidig ” in the summer. Over four days, students participate in a multitude of leadership activities involving sports, puzzles, building projects, and more. Furthermore, the Interact club has already helped sponsor the Collegeville Rotary’s annual Turkey Trot 5k on November 12th.

In the future, the club hopes to be able to sponsor exchange students and provide students an opportunity to enter into the Rotary speech and writing competition for scholarships. 

Interact is a new and unique opportunity for service at Methacton.