Central High School’s Interact Club recently was honored with the Presidential Citation Award from Rotary International, an international service organization whose purpose is to bring together business and professional leaders in order to provide humanitarian services, and to advance goodwill and peace around the world. It is a secular organization open to all people regardless of race, color, creed, religion, gender, or political preference. Interact club members have fun while carrying out service projects and learning about the world.
Accepting the Presidential Citation from Rotary International are, from left: Central High School’s Interact Club President, Taylor Croswell, Phoenix Rotary 100 President Tony Kakar, and Phoenix Rotary 100’s Central High School Interact Mentor, John Gerace (submitted photo).
Central High’s Interact Club is sponsored by Phoenix Rotary 100. There are more than 12,300 Interact clubs in 133 countries, and the Presidential Citation is the highest honor an Interact Club can receive from Rotary International.
The criteria for earning the citation includes participating in at least one activity that promotes international understanding, and participating in an event to build awareness of or to raise funds for Rotary International’s polio eradication campaign.
Clubs also are asked to participate in a school or community service project or fundraiser that supports one of Rotary’s areas of focus, including: water and sanitation; disease prevention and treatment; maternal and child health; basic education and literacy; economic and community development; and peace and conflict prevention/resolution.
Central’s Interact Club conducted several projects in the last year, including distributing books to Halloween trick-or-treaters to promote literacy, collecting donations for Rotary International’s Polio Eradication Campaign, volunteering as bell-ringers for the Salvation Army’s Holiday Red Kettle Campaign, and teaming with Rotary 100 and Rotary District 5490 on a grant to provide indestructible soccer balls to needy kids in order to promote play and physical fitness/health.
Club members also hosted visiting students from Central’s sister schools in China, Japan, Costa Rica, France, and Mexico to promote international goodwill and understanding.
