Warren County Middle School’s Interact Club ended the 2011-12 school year with talent show performances for McMinnville Noon Rotary last week and McMinnville Breakfast Rotary this week.
Interact is sponsored by both clubs. The motto of Rotary is “Service Above Self,” while Interact’s focus is on community service.
“In the last year, we have donated over 1,800 hours of service in the community,” said WCMS Interact Club president Martin Grissom. “It’s been a very busy year for us.”
Rotary’s support allows Interact members to be involved in, among other activities, Music in the Park, River Clean Up, Autumn Street Fair, Rescue Squad Toy Drive, Operation Christmas Child, Polio Plus, Share A Christmas Dinner, and Habitat for Humanity.
“Along with making a donation to Habitat for Humanity, we are actually going to help build a house this summer,” said Grissom. “It sounds like fun.”
Members also raised money with other Interact clubs in the district to build a piggery in Uganda and support an orphanage in Romania. Club members also helped the local Heritage Alliance group with several of its projects, including its annual Ghost Walk and I’ll Be Home for Christmas.
Heritage Alliance recently recognized the club with a Community Volunteerism Award for all its community service efforts and presented two members, Grissom and C.J. Rogers, with Candle Awards.
WCMS Interact earned three talent show awards in different categories when it attended a convention in March and competed against other middle school and high school Interact Clubs throughout the district.
To show appreciation to the Rotary clubs, Interact members performed the winning entries during recent Rotary meetings.
First place award in a solo competition was given to Mileah Milstead, who sung a song against bullying.
“I didn’t know bullying existed,” said Milstead. “I guess I was a little naive. I wrote this song against bullying. This is my song.”
Second place in the large-group competition was given to skit performances by approximately half of the club’s 116 members. They performed several dance skits ranging from ballroom dancing to break dancing.
Dancing off the stage with a third place award was Ginny Hodges, Sarah Lockhart, Natalie Reed, Emma Mullican and Calista Vinson for an original dance performance they dedicated to a fellow student who was diagnosed with cancer.
“We dedicated our performance to Hailey Taylor,” said Reed. “We are Team Baby H, which is also for Hailey.”
Each of the appreciation performances ended with a thank you to Rotary.