Classic Plumbing PLUMBER of the Month: The Mahomet-Seymour Interact Club

BY DANI TIETZ
dani@mahometnews.com

There’s something about giving back that makes the members of Mahomet-Seymour Interact Club light up.

Senior Zoe Hovde said that a club focused on making a difference in the community was something that she missed her freshman year of high school. 

“I was originally in Community Action Program (CAP) when I was in junior high,” she said. “Going into high school there was no way to help. 

“I was very confused about that because that was a big thing at the junior high that a lot of kids did. And as soon as they heard about the Interact Club, I decided that it would be a good thing for me to keep doing because I enjoyed it.”

When the Mahomet Rotary made the Interact Club possible at the high school, Hovde joined her sophomore year. Hovde took the reins of the Interact Club this year, serving as President in the inaugural year of an executive committee. 

Sophomore Gianna Hill also participated in CAP at Mahomet-Seymour Junior High. 

“I really just think that Interact is a great way to give back to the community,” Hill said. “And I just really enjoy all the projects that we do and getting to work with the people in my school who I probably wouldn’t have met if I didn’t do Interact.”

Through the 2019-2020 school year, the Interact Club has volunteered time and resources to the Mahomet Helping Hands, the Crisis Nursery, rang bells for the Salvation Army and played games and made Valentines at Bridle Brook. 

The group is excited to end the school year with a Spring Carnival at Lincoln Trail Elementary on March 28 from 1 to 3 p.m.

“We’re having a bounce house, the fire station will come out and do a little presentation, we’ll have carnival games,” Hill said. “We’ll have a pie face with some of the staff from Lincoln Trail and the elementary teachers. We’re also getting a magician to come out and do some magic for the little kids.”

The Champaign Interact Club is joining the Mahomet-Seymour group for the event. They are donating food.

This will be the second time the two groups have worked together. Last year the group worked on hosting a movie night together. 

What the young Mahomet-Seymour Club found was a role model for how to run an effective club.

“We really liked to get connected with them,” Hovde said. “Then after meeting with them and seeing the way they do things, we decided that we wanted to collaborate with them more.”

Each year, the Mahomet-Seymour Interact Club does one program that raises money for a community issue and another that raises money for a global issue. The movie held in the fall raised money for the American Heart Association in memory of Mackenzie Byrd. The Spring Carnival will raise money that will be donated to organizations that help the Australian wildlife after the brush fires late last year. 

The admission fee to the carnival is $8. Additional donations will be accepted.

“Because we aren’t really well-funded, we have very little budget for this, so we really want to make it great and make a lot of profit from it,” Hovde said.

The Interact group handed out flyers with information about the carnival to all the Mahomet-Seymour students Pre-K to fifth grade. Flyers will also be going up in businesses soon. 

“We just really need the word spread,” Hill said. 

For junior Aeisha Patel, it’s all about being an active member of the community.

“I get to help with service and do things that help the community,” she said. 

Patel’s classmate Payton Mannin said that being part of Interact has opened up a new world for her. 

“It’s a way to build relationships with new people throughout the community and I feel like I’ve met a lot of people that I wouldn’t get to otherwise,” she said.

The group hopes the local gathering is something that will impact the Mahomet-Seymour community in a positive way for years to come.

“We really just want it to feel like a community-based project and maybe for new families to get to know other families in the community as well,” Hill said. 

The Spring Carnival committee consisted of Payton Mannin, Gianna Hill, Aiesha Patel, Kyle Widener, Zoe Hovde, Klein Powell, Costen Campion and Sylvia Byron.