Exeter's Interact Club Helps the Community

Whether hosting community service projects or fundraisers, supplying food to local shelters, or working to raise money for those in need, Exeter’s Interact Club, more commonly known as the Rotary Club, assists the Exeter community at large and encompasses the true definition of “non-sibi.”The Interact Club, the Academy’s branch of Rotary International, a global community service organization that focuses on serving communities and encouraging ethical character, concentrates on training students in the abilities and qualities fitting of a Rotary member by volunteering and helping members of the local community. Although Interact is not a very well known club on campus, it is incredibly active in the community.“[The club] currently has around twenty active members that have helped us realize over 3 large scale project,” co-head and upper Arslan Berbic, one of the founders of Exeter’s Interact Club, said. “In a cooperation with Rotary Club Exeter, we have helped raise almost $15,000 in food donations for St. Vincent Paul’s food shelter in Exeter.”The club plans their benevolent activities once a week, on Sunday. “Something that we plan on doing once or twice a month is cook a meal for a homeless family,” co-head and lower Marq Schieber said. “In addition we've hosted a group of students from Ireland and have helped with a blood drive.”The club participates in other work as well. “We also work with Seacoast Family Promise where we pledged to make one family a meal every two weeks. This year, one of our bigger projects will be in cooperation with Friends Forever, where we will bring 5 Israeli and 5 Palestinian kids to the Academy and get an insight into their life and ethnic and religious struggles,” Berbic explained. “Last year we did a similar project with Irish Catholic and Protestant kids and it was very successful.”These projects have special meaning for every member of the club. Upper Sachin Holdheim addressed Rotary International’s position as a secular organization and how it affects Exeter’s Interact Club. “Rotary, for me, is a club all about breaking down boundaries,” Holdheim said. “Be it those between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, or those within the underprivileged community and ourselves, here in Exeter.”Holdheim continued to explain the depth of the club’s work and the personal value. “Interact Club benefits the community through active participation,” he said. “We are all about going out there and making personal change. We’ve volunteered at grocery stores, and have raised enough food for the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry here in Exeter to last for months. We also cook for the homeless and underprivileged around three times a month.”Many members of the club see it as an opportunity to train and prepare to join Rotary in the future. “I do plan on continuing the Interact Club here, and probably Rotary in the future,” Holdheim said. “I plan on moving around a lot in my future, and Rotary, be it trying to eradicate Polio in India or building sustainable wells in the Congo, is something that is always present and always making real, meaningful change."