From making blankets for the animal shelter, to cleaning up trash to participating in community events, Interact Club is where students meet to discuss volunteer options and ways to help improve the community.

“Traditionally Interact Club has been a place where students can come and find volunteering opportunities, but lately you can mostly find all of those online and so we’ve been trying to do more group projects,” Ella Hennager ‘19 said.

This year, City High’s Interact Club has around 10 members as opposed to the around 40 members it has had the last few years.

“[If you are interested] join. We really want new people, especially younger people to join, because we’re running out of people,” Hennager said. “I first joined at the beginning of my freshman year because I wanted to volunteer and I wasn’t really sure how to.”

Interact’s latest project was the Matchmaker fundraiser, the donations of which (just over $600) went to the animal shelter, an organization for whom, in the past, Interact has made blankets.

“I guess this sounds kind of cliche, but I just gained a lot of new skills and experiences,” Hennager said. “I’ve been able to practice meeting new people and learning new things about people who have different experiences than I do.”

One example of this is the annual Pow Wow that is held at the University of Iowa Field House, which is meant for people of Native American heritage, but the general community is welcome to come as well.

“[There are] little booths and then there also are choreographed dances that they do and it fills up this huge gym in the field house. It’s pretty cool,” Hennager said.

This year, Interact Club also went to the Ronald McDonald house to help this organization by putting together packages of toiletries, which to Hennager was just another example of how far member of the club will go to give back.

“Anyone who comes to interact has a kind heart because they just want to volunteer,” Hennager said. “No one’s gonna be judgmental. It’s a good environment.”