Monroe Rotary honors MHS, SMCC Interact Clubs

The Monroe News
·2 min read
Interact Club members from St. Mary Catholic Central are: Charlotte Jones, president of the SMCC Interact Club; Ana Cuccia; Chloe Lohmeyer; Margaret Prohaska; Abigayle Brown; Sadie Johnson; and Jacob Smith. Lilly Duran is not pictured. Interact Club members from Monroe High School are: Christina Rice, president of the MHS Interact Club; Lilly Brooks; Jessica Gallegos; Olivia Gladieux; Julia Puruleski; Carly Kuehnlein; Diamond Thompson; and Chloe Pabin. Megan Scaggs (top row, far right) is moderator of the SMCC Interact Club. Sue Jones (top row, second from left) is moderator of the MHS Interact Club. George (Pat) Barley (top row, far left) is the Rotary Club liaison for the two Interact Clubs.

The Interact Clubs at Monroe High School and St. Mary Catholic Central High School were honored at a recent meeting of the Monroe Rotary Club.

Interact is Rotary's high school service club program.

“Monroe Rotary is blessed with what I believe are two Interact Club that I would be willing to put up against any throughout Rotary International. I decided we'd devote a meeting to recognize the leadership of those groups, along with students who participated last fall in the District 6400 RYLA program,” J. David Bagnall, Monroe Rotary president, said. “I hope this will become an annual event for Monroe Rotary.”

Both high school clubs have more than 50 student members each. Christina Rice is the Interact Club president at MHS. Charlotte Jones is the SMCC Interact Club president.

“They have been busy so far during the ’22-23 school year, doing things that Rotarians enjoy most, supporting and helping people in our community who are less fortunate,” Bagnall said.

At the meeting, both clubs spoke about this year’s projects and shared ideas for the rest of the school year.

“They showed up in droves in October to help our club with our District 6400 Impact Day Project at the Munson Park Playscape, collected coats for our Salvation Army Coat Drive, helped at the club’s Monroe County ISD Christmas Party and also at Rotary’s annual Breakfast with Santa. Plus they rang Christmas bells with us for the Salvation Army. Thank you, thank you,” Bagnall said.

Sue Jones of MHS and Megan Scaggs of SMCC are the Interact faculty leaders. Monroe Rotary member Pat Barley is the Interact liaison this year.

Barley gave certificates to each Interact student and also to Interact students who participated in the district’s Rotary Youth Leadership Awards conference in October.

Also recognized at the meeting were Irving Hwang, youth service chair, who helped with RYLA last fall, and Jordan Baehr of Monroe Community Credit Union, who made certificates for Interact students.

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Monroe Rotary honors MHS, SMCC Interact Clubs