Hood River Valley High students find friends through Rotary

“Over my years in Rotary, I have had the good fortune to have been involved with a number of programs that allowed me to come to know personally fellow Rotarians and people from around the world,” he said at a recent club meeting regarding Rotary’s global impact. “Rotary does not have a country, a culture, a color, a religion, a language, a gender … Rotary encompasses all.”

So perhaps it’s not surprising that his granddaughter, Makena Bennett, decided to carry on the Rotary tradition by leading the Interact Club. She is a regular guest at weekly Hood River Rotary Club meetings with her grandfather.

The idea for the club came from another Hood River Rotarian, Steve Schmidt. Schmidt chairs the Rotary’s Peace Pole committee and saw value in connecting the young leaders at Hood River Valley High School (HRVHS) to community service opportunities.

And so, the Rotary Club of Hood River’s Interact Club was christened in 2022 and officially chartered in 2023, beginning at Wy’east Middle School with help from Principal Sarah Braman-Smith. Eight 7-8 grade students began as the core group, with Bennett leading as charter president.

Since its inception, the club has grown. There are now 15 freshman and sophomore members at HRVHS. Students meet three times a month for one and a half hours at a time in Spanish teacher Heidi Mudry’s classroom; Mudry additionally serves as HRVHS’ faculty adviser and regularly attends Interact meetings along with Rotarians Schmidt, Weting and Bob Sharkey.

Similar to the larger Hood River Rotary Club, Interact Club students have service projects. They have refurnished the courtyard garden at Wy’esat and assisted with Rotary Club events. Upcoming projects include an event at the library for young children, and a project with The Next Door’s “Libros con Amigos.”

International Connections

Weting and his wife, Marny, traveled to Türkiye in 2012 to participate in an English language conversation project sponsored by the Rotary Club of Kocaeli. During their visit, they met with college students to work on their English for two weeks — and, years later, this Rotarian connection became a school project, with HRVHS students working with similarly-aged students in Türkiye.

The project has allowed students in Türkiye and Interact Club members to learn from each other. They have discovered differences but have also learned what they have in common.

“The project has provided all the students to experience students like themselves from a different country, culture and region of the world through their own lenses not through the lens of the international media,” Weting said. “Simply person to person.”

Students Violet Lorenzen, Oceana McQuade and Bennett, three of the original members of the Interact club, presented at a recent Hood River Rotary meeting and spoke about how the club has grown and what they have learned. When asked how the club has grown over the years, Bennett said having pizza at the meetings was a big draw. In addition, they have learned much with the modern pen pal friendships.

In the United States, most students know English and only learn a foreign language for a couple of years at school.  In Türkiye, English is a core class in school, just like math or reading.

Columbia Gorge News later met with the Interact Club to learn more about their partnership with students in Türkiye.

“We all learn English, but I feel like it’s kind of exclusive to us, and we are creating a boundary between other countries, really, like privileged,” Interact Club Member Savina Davis said. “We feel like everyone else should learn English and we don’t have to learn the other language.”

Lorenzen said there are many topics the clubs have discussed. “Before we meet together, we collaborate … and decide on contemporary, more modern topics. We’ve done environmental stuff — wildfires and holidays; like, they did Ramadan and we did Thanksgiving.”

Topics are planned ahead of time and include topics for both larger groups and small break out groups of just a few people. The time includes a slide show presentation from both clubs on the chosen topic. When asked some things they learned about Ramadan, Bennett said, “I learned most don’t go to school for an entire month. It is very much a family celebration time …”

The Interact students seem to have a plan to continue as long as possible, with new student recruits coming up. Some of the students are even communicating on their own outside of the scheduled zoom meetings with social media apps. McQuade, the club’s treasurer, said, “We exchanged our TikTok info so we could communicate with each other through direct messages which I really like because I feel as if we can connect on a lot of stuff. I know that she’s a huge fan of Lana Del Rey, and so am I, but I have found that we share many of the same cool interests. I love talking to her and it feels like I’m there with her sometimes.”

Coincidentally, the next topic for the students is going to be discussing the history and evolution of music.

To be involved with The Hood River Interact Club at HRVHS, students can contact Steve Schmidt, 214-232-1362 or sschmidtss@outlook.com.

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Editor’s note: The United Nations moved to change the Republic of Turkey to Türkiye in 2021 after a formal request was made.