Interact Club

The Whakatāne High School Interact Club is a group of people between the ages of 12 and 18 years old who want to help the community. The club is full of people who enjoy helping others in ways like volunteering at events in the community and at school. Whakatāne High School Interact Club helps students learn to be leaders and develop skills that help them work as a team. Interact Club is recognised as an official club by Rotary International. Over time, more and more people have been joining the club and we now have around 35 members. By joining, they make friends and feel the achievement that comes with this. In Interact, we strive to have our members grow and become more confident with the things that they do. By volunteering at events and raising money for different causes students get to step out of their comfort zones in a way that is exciting and fun! During the year, we were able to volunteer and help at many different events. These included Art in the Park, Jazz in the Park, Picnic Like Grandma, Have a Heart, and the Pink Ribbon Breakfast. All of these events were held for different organizations and important causes. We also helped the school with different events like the “Back to the 80s” production, the Year 9 BBQ, and the Centennial. We will also be donating pajamas to the hospital for Christmas and making cookies to sell to raise money. This year’s board has been working hard to get involved and give our members many opportunities. Our Board members who work alongside Mrs Bonne are: Iziah Carter (president), Anchal Sharma (secretary), Lara Longney (treasurer), Ashley Giles, Aurora Finch, Callum Giles, Charlotte Billings and Olivia Nolan (directors). Along with our weekly club meeting, the board meets every Tuesday to discuss how to improve the club, upcoming events and meetings. This includes picking interesting guest speakers to come and talk to the club. These people are usually role models, leaders, inspiring individuals and also people who are making a difference in the community. Interact Club meetings are held every Friday at lunchtime and are very interesting. Our Board plans different things for the club to do at the meeting, like hearing speakers that have been brought in and planning our next events that we are volunteering at. This year we have been working more on leadership skills because we want our members to be confident leaders in our community. This has been a very successful year for the Interact Club. We have worked together through lockdowns and hard times to continue to make a difference. Members are helping at as many events as possible and enjoying spending time with a great group of friends. Luckily, this year we were able to help out a lot more in the community because of people doing their part with Covid! Hopefully we can continue to do this for many years in the future.