Participating in a club means gaining the responsibility for volunteering and earning service hours.

Most people would assume that one acquires these hours by helping out within the school. Although there are service-hour opportunities within the school, many students are involved in various volunteer tasks outside of school. 

The Interact club specifically encourages members to branch out and obtain service hours by interacting with more of the community.

Senior TJ Pack is one of the members of the Interact club and has earned some of his hours by hosting a food pantry every fourth Saturday of the month at Lake Bowen Baptist Church.

“I usually help carry bags out to people’s cars, like heavy grocery bags,” Pack said. “It’s different (from other clubs) because these people need help with stuff they can’t physically do, so we help them out.”

When attempting to earn these hours, there will be obstacles to overcome.  

“There’s definitely a language barrier,” Pack said. “There are a lot of Slavic immigrants, and it’s kind of hard to communicate with them.”

Taking part in this provides many unique perspectives about the world that one may not always encounter. 

Sophomore Myan Johnson is also involved in the Interact club, where she strives to help people who are less fortunate than others. 

For some of her service hours, Johnson went to Chimney Rock and helped clean up the debris after the damage from Hurricane Helene. 

“We got to meet a lot of diverse people and see how they live and see what they’re going through,” she said. 

Sophomore Miley Treadway, another example from the Interact club, spends some of her time volunteering at the Foothills Humane Society. 

“Any impact we can make on the community is what we strive for, and just overall wish to help people out in any way we can,” she said. “What I love about volunteering there is that you can really see a difference right away, plus everyone there is so nice and treats you as if you are staff,” Treadway said.