Westbrook-Gorham Rotary was pleased to welcome several members of the Gorham High School Interact Club to our meeting on July 25. The students provided a report on their activities from the 2016-2017 year, then shared the goals and plans for the 2017-2018 year.  We also heard from three students who attended RYLA in June at Camp Hinds.  
 
President Aaron Farr introduced the four officers and three of the four board members who were able to join us. He shared some club statistics from their first year.  With 51 club members, they participated in 8 events and gave 607 hours or community service. Their largest event was Relay for life in which 28 members participated.
 
 
 
Treasurer Jon Scriber spoke about their participation in a Habitat for Humanity build over the winter.  They were able to work on a home in Scarborough on two occasions. Secretary Abbie van Luling talked about their participation in Relay for Life.  The 28 participants gave up much of a weekend to travel by school bus to UNE where they stayed awake and active all night to raise funds for the American Cancer Society. They also mentioned their collection of activity books, crayons, band aids, etc, for Barbara Bush Children’s hospital, a project that Ethan Johnson helped them with and which many W-G Rotary members contributed items to.
 
 
Aaron then covered their goals and project plans for the coming year. Their first goal is to grow membership to 65 while retaining all of their current members.  They plan to increase events to 10 and give 800 hours of service, more than 30% increase over the past year!  New projects they are looking at include bi-monthly soup kitchen visits, sending school supplies to third world countries, celebrating Earth Day, and volunteering at the Animal Shelter.
 
Vice President Garrett Higgins showed us some results of a survey of members conducted at the end of last year.  Garrett shared some of the responses members gave when asked their favorite part of the club: “The upbeat atmosphere”, “making memories and new friends”, and “the fact that everyone came together to help the community”.
 
RYLA attendees Sarah Walker, Sarah Stevens and Hailey Morrill shared their impressions of RYLA. All of them valued the experience and will be good ambassadors to recruit for next year.  Adviser Neile Nelson offered a few words of praise for all of the students and their amazing organizational skills and accomplishments.
 
 
Finally, the remaining board members conducted a pop quiz to see how well we had listened to the presentation. Those who answered questions first and correctly received 2017 RYLA shirts.
 
Before leaving, the students all signed books that were donated to the Baxter Library in Gorham.