FAIR OAKS, CA (MPG) - The coronavirus pandemic has sent a lot of entities into suspend or shut-down mode, but the Interact Club at Bella Vista High School has found a way to continue making their ideal of service a reality despite online learning, online club meetings and online whatever.  As the high school affiliate of the Rotary Club of Fair Oaks, they try to live Rotary’s motto of “Service Above Self”.

Over a five day period that included World Polio Day, October 24, they participated in a modified version of the Rotary club’s project “Move For Polio”, in which they ran, walked or biked, and the club pledged to donate $5 per mile up to $500 to PolioPlus, Rotary’s fund for polio eradication.  The seventeen participants easily made the mileage to qualify for the $500 donation.

Starting soon, ten Interactors will participate in a “reading buddies” project with ten second-graders at Northridge Elementary School.  The club purchased twenty copies of “Frog and Toad Are Friends”, ten for each set of students, and partners will discuss what they read using an online app monitored by the second grade teacher, who just happens to have been an Interactor when she attended Bella Vista HS.  Small world.

On November 21, four Interactors showed up to help the Rotary Club do their quarterly cleanup of Madison Avenue adjacent to Bella Vista, AND they helped the Rotarians maintain their waistlines by helping to put away the donuts that magically appeared.  That same day, several club members used appropriated club funds to purchase and deliver nine turkeys to the Fair Oaks-Orangevale Food Bank to help alleviate an unexpected Thanksgiving turkey shortage.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, the club board encouraged members to pick three influential people in their lives and send them a “Thank You” letter to express their gratitude and offer some holiday cheer, pandemic be darned.  It may sound trite to say this, but it’s true… with kids like this leading the way, the world is bound to be a better place in years to come.