Independence Interact First Semester 2014 2015 Newsletter

INDEPENDENCE HIGH SCHOOL

I N T E R A C T FIRST SEMESTER

2014-2015Interact is an international community service club for the youth. We work on various international and community

projects to help improve the world that we live in. Community service and international action are our core

values, and we strive to inspire leaders to take the initiative. We empower change.

By: Howard Wong, Lindsay Bui, Keshav Kumar, Ashna Mangla

NEWSLETTER

Co-Community Officers’ Message 1Hours & Monetary Accomplishments 2Club Goals 3Major Events 4-8CMF Craft DaysChinese Moon FestivalFall Leadership Conference 2014InterKey Movie BondingCharity DinnerWIntercirclesHoliday of HopeCommunity Service Events 8-11Fundraisers 12-13Pizza My HeartFall Bake SaleYogurtland ChatimeInteractor’s of the Month 13-14Presidents’ Messages 15Leadership Team 16

Co-Community Officers’ Message

Hey Beautiful Bombshell Belugas of Interact! Along with your Co-Media Officers, we are grateful and honored to present to you all our First Semester Newsletter filled with pictures entailing service, testimonials, and summaries as a way to recap this past semesters’ achieve-ments, commitments, and memorable moments. Please treat this newsletter as a thank you gift from us officers. Thank you to all you mem-bers for being a part of our club, committing to service at every event, “Breaking Barriers and Building Bridges”. We cannot emphasize enough how much you all mean to us. As gen-eral members, YOU all are the ones that make up our club, attend our events, and participate in whatever we decide to implement for our semester. We know that this past semester has been hard with roadblocks from our school administration and we greatly appreciate you belugas for your extreme patience and time. As we are proud of our club accomplishments, please do not forget to be proud of yourselves. You members of our club are the people who donate funds and spend your time attending our events in making the community a better place for all of us. Thanks to the members of Interact, citizens in Kenya will be one step clos-er in saying “Home Sweet Home” in commem-oration of our District International Project and students in our local community feel at ease with all your “Open Hearts & Open Arms”, relating to our District Community Project. We hope you all take some time to enjoy our First Semester Newsletter and take pride in all your hard work towards our community. “The best way to find yourself is to lose your-self in the service of others.” -- Mohandas Gandhi

PEACE, LOVE, INTERACT.Howard Wong & Lindsay Bui

Table of Contents

What draws you to Interact Club and why did you stay?

What is your favorite Interact event of this 1st Semester?

Interact First Semester Newsletter 1

Total service hours3338

Total Monetary Funds

$2051.09

CLASS

FreshmenSophomore

JuniorSenior

ACTIVEMEMBERS

69695170

SERVICEHOURS

659.331076.59

700.5952.1

Total active meMbers 259

Hours and Monetary Accomplishments

Interact club makes me want to stay in this club because it is so welcoming from my freshmen year all the way to today. Every board member and officer represent interact club in a respective manner and they work so hard to make every event special.- Earlvin Manuel, sophomore.


My favorite event for the first semester was the Silicon Valley PurpleStrides event. I really got the chance to bond with my fellow buddies, meet new amazing individuals, and just have a a positive outlet from my usual life.-Kevin Luong, junior.

Club Goals

4612Hours Until Goal

Initial Service Hours Goal

8000

Initial Monetary Goal

$2000

SURPASSEDFunds Left Until

Goal


MAJOR EVENTSCHINESE MOON FESTIVAL CRAFT DAYS Chinese Moon Festival Craft Days are our annual summer seasonal events in which Interact work with CSF, IHS & KIPP KEY, LEO, Origami, and UNICEF to create crafts such as paper snakes, accordions, etc in preparation for Chinese Moon Festival. This year we were lucky enough to have it revert to our traditional venue by school, Overfelt Gardens. Craft Days generally serve as the spark of motivation for incoming freshmen and new members to learn more about their impact... future. The crafts are put together in bags and always become a won-drous sight to see. Hundreds of students always attend Craft Days and be able to contribute to the community and meet potential friends! CHINESE MOON FESTIVAL

In collaboration with the San Jose Parks Recreation, and Neighbor-hood Services and CSF, IHS & KIPP KEY, LEO, Origami, and UNICEF clubs, Interact participated in one of the largest annual events at Overfelt Gardens called the Chinese Moon Festival (CMF), which is an event to celebrate the new year. On craft days, volunteers worked on numerous crafts to prepare for the actual day of CMF, where community members created traditional Chinese crafts, watched amazing performances, and enriched themselves in the community life. This year’s event was dedicated to the happiness and creativity of children of all ages and cultures, and it wouldn’t have been so successful and fun if it weren’t for our dedicated volunteers!


Fall Leadership Conference 2014FLC, Fall Leadership Conference is an annual event hosted by the Interact District 5170’s Council consisting of rallies, workshops, presentations, speeches, and much more. This year, FLC 2014 broke attendance records internationally coming to a close number of 4000 students all packed in our Independence High School gym to raise almost 50,000 dollars to fund all District events. All the Areas across the largest District in the world come together under one roof to learn more about leadership, professionalism, and the objective of Interact. With this event, two creative projects were finally announced, “Home Sweet Home” as our District Internation-al Project and “Open Heart, Open Arms” as our District Community Project. Together, we can be the light that extinguishes the darkness caused by world problems.


InterKey Movie NightThis is the second year IHS Interact Club and IHS Key Club were able to collaborate and host a movie night for our general members. Our InterKey movie night is a great way to promote unity and service between members and our community. This year we watched Divergent, a science fiction movie based on the book series Divergent by Veronica Roth. Together we enjoyed great snacks, bonded, watched an exciting movie, and created wonderful memories while taking pictures with our amazing city back-drop made by the InterKey leadership team. We want to thank all of the attendees because without you guys, our movie night would not have been a success!

My favorite event was FLC from this first semester because it has shown me the roots of interact and how the club was before I even joined. It also gave me and opportunity to see all the other interactors from the other areas. - Earlvin Manuel, sophomore


Charity DinnerCharity Dinner is an Interact tradition where all of the schools in an Area come together to host a dinner to raise money for our International Project. At Charity Dinner, attendees enjoy a great show while eating a delicious Italian dinner made by Area 6’s food committee. This year, Interact’s Area 6 had the honor of hosting our 11th annual Charity Dinner entitled “Lost in Neverland” Piedmont Hills High. It was a huge success! Area 6 released out of area tickets and were sold out in less than a minute! Area 6’s member tickets were also sold out! Overall, our attendees had a great time and were able to take commemorative pictures at our Peter Pan themed photo booth. All profits will go towards our Interna-tional Project: Home Sweet Home.

WintercirclesIntercircles is a social bonding event, where our members come together to bond with each other and learn more about Interact! This year’s WIntercircles was the first Intercircles of the school year! At this year’s WIntercircles, we re-leased our second semester board applications and talked about leadership to help inspire our applicants! We also have a few rounds of mock interviews sessions to let our applicants have an idea how the interview process would be like. This year unfortunately we saw people vandalizing the library’s window. However, seeing this, our members came together to help clean the window. This truly exemplifies service above self and inspire the uninspired! Together we became one and make change!


Holiday of Hope Holiday of Hope, a new creative idea thought of this year by Victoria Huynh from Milpitas High School became an event for all us to open our eyes and make a difference in our local community. IHS Interact participated by collecting clothes & monetary donations to go towards the homeless. With the money we raised, we were able to buy new life essentials for the less fortunate living in various parts of downtown. Preparation days consisted of vol-unteers from all over Area 6 joining together at a library to create care packages with all that we collected. As the volunteer days were over, members were able to see face to face how their efforts impacted those who needed the most and brightened their days.

I absolutely love everything about Interact! The purpose and intentions of Interact definitely drew me into the club and deeply touched my heart. I stayed in the club because even if I’m simply just a general member, I believe that I can make a positive impact on the world sim-ilarly to how Interact has positively impacted me. I grew more aware of things that are happening in the world, particularly in third world countries, such as malnutrition, homelessness, poverty, mass starva-tion and more. Interact helps to make this world a better place and that makes me proud to be an Interactor. - Khanh Dang, sophomore.

Community service eventsBerryessa Halloween EventThe annual Berryessa Halloween Event is hosted by District 4’s Councilmember Kansen Chu, as a family event to bring children and families together for an evening of fun and spirit. Interactors set up and ran the activities at the event, including setting up decorations, running the photo booth, doing arts and crafts with children, and serving popcorn before the Halloween-themed movie. Kids came dressed in halloween costumes, and volunteers engaged them with Halloween related fun activities and had the opportunity to bond with them!


Six For Service Blanket Making

It’s not everyday where we are able to have Interactors from Area 6 come together, but this event definitely accomplished bringing this huge family together. A huge plus was that not only did we bond, but we combined service into the event by making blankets out of t-shirts donated by our volunteers. This event allowed volunteers to have a hands on experi-ence and directly make a blanket that will go help a family in need. Even better, Interactors from middle schools were able to experience volunteering at a early age and be exposed to the joy of spreading love, smiles, and service.

A678 Hands For HugsAnother awesome Join-Area event with Areas 7 & 8, Hands for Hugs was created to commem-orate “OHOA Week” in which we dedicated a service bonding day towards the three pillars of OHOA, food, education, & fellowship. Attend-ees were required to bring one canned food, one children’s book, and one piece of clothing to relate to our three pillars of our District Com-munity Project. These items were then donated later on to various hospitals for children that value all aspects in their life. At the service bonding, members were taught how to create care packages consisting of motivational cards & bookmarks while bonding with Out of Area attendees to “Break Barriers & Build Bridges.” IHS Interact members served as a large portion of the group that came to Cataldi Park, ready to serve & bond!

I like the environment at the meetings and also the service events. There are a wide variety of events and service for different purposes. It’s strange because throughout the years, I still never quite grew out of a shell. I’m definitely an introvert, and sometimes I’m way too quiet and uninteractive... Ever since the first few CMF Craft days in Sophomore year, I began to open up a little. This club, other clubs, and the school helped me enjoy my time. I’m still far from being comfortable with all kinds of communities, but Interact gave me exposure.Don Nguyen, senior.


Alice Phan’s Salvation Army Toy N Joy Event

Interactors spread their Christmas joy as they guid-ed their assigned parent through toy wonderland! Every family had kids with their own unique likings so it’s our job to help pick out the perfect gift for the family. Toy ‘N Joy Shopping Escort was indeed a sentimental event because we remembered the good ol’ days when we were once kids picking out Christmas gifts. The parents’ were so happy when we finished choosing their children gifts and we wished we were there to see the smile on their faces when they unwrap the gifts. We interacted with the other volunteers who were in different clubs too!

Alice Phan & Priscilla Lui’s MLK Book Sale Event

Priscilla and I led the November Book Sale at Dr. Martin Luther King Library where Interactors prepared, orga-nized, and sorted out the countless amount of books. Two Interactors were chosen to manage the front table where friendly customers would purchase their books. The coordinator was so kind enough to guide us through the library and even allowed us to pick five free books of our choice! Since there were so many volunteers, we got the job done quickly meaning more time to explore the books. At the end of the day, everyone was very satisfied with the free books they got and the coordinator was deeply grateful for our service! Dr. Martin Luther King Library holds this book sale every month so we’re really looking forward to working with them again!

If I had to choose one, it’d be the Christmas Toy ‘N Joy Shop-ping Escort which was led by the beautiful and extraordinary Alice Phan. On the day of, we escorted and helped parents choose gifts for their littluns and it felt so heartwarming to see them pick up toys they thought their kids would love. It was festive, there were lots of toys, happy parents, and I still remember the smell of the big trash bags. Shannon Le, sophomore.


Kathy Lam’s Christmas In The Park Prep Event

On November 1st of 2014, around 10 IHS Interactors gathered at the Christmas in the Park Warehouse to prep for the annual San Jose attraction that would be opening in a month. We first helped clean up the warehouse by taking down the Halloween props, then started painting large presents and sleights made out of wood. Another group of volunteers created an assembly line to make massive bows. The decorations were absolutely astonish-ing and it was great to go behind the scenes of one of the most anticipated San Jose events of the year. Overall, everyone was productive as usual, and we left with cute pins as a reward for our work!

Vanessa Van’s Fare Walk for Food Event

My Fare Walk for Food Allergy event was my favorite event so far. What we did consisted of attending booths and handling food that was allergy-free. Many schools were there so it was a great way to meet new people. At the end, our advisers were super sweet and gave us food. Overall, the event was super amazing and successful.

Sylvia Nguyen’s Taste of Berryessa Event

Taste of Berryessa was an excellent event for atten-dants and volunteers alike! While the beginning of the event was a bit slow, as booths were setting themselves up, when people came to try all the food, volunteers were able to check off the card to keep track of what samples each person already had. From what I hear, this year was much more efficient than last year. In the end, volunteers were able to try the food as well! There were also other clubs from Piedmont, and we were able to build new bridges!


FUNDRAISERSPizza My Heart Fundraiser

IHS Interact Club held a Pizza My Heart fundraiser in the fall of 2014, to raise money for our Rotary Club’s Tribal School Project to provide education for young girls in a tribal village in India. Attendees enjoyed delectable, delicious, warm pizza while supporting a cause that will empower change for these young girls in India. It was a successful fundraiser!

Fall Bake SaleThis year Rotary International launched a tribal proj-ect to help girls in India to get an education to help them break the cycle of poverty and arranged child marriages. IHS Interact set a goal of $500 to donate to this project, and we were able to achieve through our Fall Bake Sale. Our leadership team came to-gether to bake cookies and brownies and they were sold in front of the Educational Park Library. With the support of our club members, friends, and members of the community, we were sold out within an hour!

Yogurtland A6 Fundraiser

One of the many Area 6 fundraisers held this year was at Yogurtland on Brokaw Commons! Many Interactors attended this fundraiser and helped towards the Home Sweet Home International Project, and enjoyed a cup of frozen Yogurtland at the same time. Also, one of our co-media coor-dinators works here, the famous #Keshav-FromYogurtland. We raised over $70 from this fundraiser .


Chatime A6 FundrasierWith our new A6 Fundraising Committee put into action, a local milk tea fundraiser by Independence High School was put on by various Area 6 students. Every time a person made a transaction along with our designat-ed flyer, part of the proceeds goes towards our District International Project, “Home Sweet Home”. Historians from Piedmont Hills High School stayed throughout the fundraiser to provide flyers & cameras to take pictures commemorating our successful fundraiser. Even Area 8 students from An-drew Hill High School came to show us their support and love for milk tea. With these fundraisers, children in Kenya are one step closer in saying “Home Sweet Home!”

Interactors of the month

Joshua Yao & Reynor TaculogOctober

I’ve only been in Interact for 3 months but it has introduced me to an entire new world that’s full of possibilities. Interact has presented me with a chance to do the things that I love, whether it’s service or creating bonds with new people. Interact is a blessing. My favorite event so far is FLC. FLC has shown me that I am not alone.There are 3000 other people who want to change the world as much as I want to. Feeling that amount of passion gathered into one gym was a life changing experience. Last of all, interact has given me the best thing I could I ask for. This seemingly normal club full of high school teenagers, are now my family and I will cherish that forever and always.

Hey fellow Interactors! My name is Reynor and I’m your Interactor of the month for October 2014. So, I’ve been in Interact since the beginning of the 2014-2015 school year and my very first impression was this club was only useful for hours. Man, was I wrong! Interact has provided me with various life learning skills through events such as flc, Oktoberfest (Eric Dang’s event) and PurpleStride (Kevin Luong’s event). These events taught me how to be more patience towards people. Like when I was in charge of the PurpleStoore, I had to deal with a lot of unpleasant cus-tomers(one customer attempting to stealing an item and another trying to get special treatment), so my super advisor gave me great advice of how to deal with annoying people and Ive been using her advice every time I encounter a person I dislike. I also became a much graceful person after seeing many individuals, who lost their loved ones through pancreatic cancer, still managing to smile. The fact we get free food and merchandise at the events is also what I love. Trust me, the food is delicious. So, I’d like to thank Interact for driving me to become a better person and giving me a different (better) perspective in life.


Hello Interactors, I’m Kyle Fan, your Interactor of November. I have been in Interact soon after the most recent Fall Leadership Conference (FLC), so you know I haven’t been here for long. It was those beautiful speeches spoken by those outstanding Interactors that attracted me to join Interact and be part of the projects that they are working on. With the projects that are presented and the fellow officers and board members at my school, I have been continue to grow affection towards this club. This year’s FLC and Turkey Trot were two of my favorite events I have been in. FLC was amazing overall, the workshops with different District Council officers were fun and the speeches given by Daniel Chan and Elizabeth Hoang were moving. I have met many Interactors and bonded rather quickly, I also saw some of my old friends, talk about a place for reunion. In Turkey Trot, the early morning adventures are fun and distributing the medals to those hard working runners simply gave me a warm feeling. During those time, I’ve attempted and talk to those runners and congratulating them. Fortunately, they are all so friendly. This event had helped me overcome the nervousness when I interact with strangers. Because of these fun events and each of the amazing individuals of the Interact office, it inspired me to continue to stay in Interact and continue learning and experiencing new things that i will find in the future.

Kyle Fann & Patrick MataNovember

I’ve been in interact for three years, but this year is the most active that I’ve ever been. My drive for interact would probably be Alexander Nguyen. He is a good friend of mine who helped me realize my passion for interact. Going to FLC with my friends showed me how big of a community interact was and it made me want to work harder. My favorite event would be the light the night walk. I got to see childhood friends, whom I haven’t seen in so long. I learned that she had a family member who had leukemia.I was glad that I went because I was able to catch up with them. Through Interact, I think I became more com-fortable working with others. I usually prefer to do things by myself and Interact showed me the wonders working with people. I started feeling more comfortable when I work on projects thanks to Interact. Now, I feel more contended when I am around others.

Hi, my name is Andrea, and this is my first year being a part of the Interact family. Though I have only been in high school for a couple of months, I have already created unbreak-able bonds and friendships with so many inspiring people through Interact. This club has taught me about giving and what it means to be part of a team working together towards a bigger goal. My favorite event would be Area 6’s Charity Dinner. Since I was able to go early, I had the opportunity to see the behind-the-scene action before the event. Watching all the Interactors working in the kitchen and setting up in the building made me realize all the production and teamwork needed to put together this amazing event. I am so glad to be able to say I’m an Interactor, and I’m in the club that’s not only impacting me but also changing the world.

Andrea Lam & Shannon LeDecember

Hellooo, I’m Shannon and I’m a sophomore. Being a part of Interact since freshman year has not only broadened my perspective on what the world is, it’s given me a new purpose in life to pursue service for those in need and simply to bring joy to others. To have had amaz-ing experiences from the countless amount of volunteering events such as the halloween event, CMF, the shopping escort, FLC (and so much more), I’ve learned what it truly means to be a part of the community which not only includes working to achieve your goals, but also working alongside with peers to make the world a better place which really emphasizes Service Above Self. That being said, I thank Interact, the leaders, the amazing members, Ms. Johnson, and I thank your beautiful self!



CO-Presidents’ message

Katrina DangSenior

First semester has been amazing… and it’s all thanks to each and every Interactor. All of you are radiating so much love and care to our community by participating in com-munity service. Because of that, you made a difference. YOU are taking part of a MOVEMENT to help better our community and world. Although it seems like what we do today in the community is small, remember that it’s the small steps that start big changes. I truly thank you for your support, passion, dedication, and optimism through-out this semester. Let’s, together as “One Family”, start second semester strong and end stronger.

Elizabeth HoangSenior

Stephen King once said, “You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will.” Interactors, you are the defi-nition of change. You are the NOW, and you are the FUTURE. Each and every single one of us has a unique story to tell, but regardless of our different experiences, appearances and per-sonalities, we are able to unite and grow as one family while locally and globally create change-- a better, brighter tomorrow. That’s why I’m absolutely honored and humble to serve as your Co-President and International Coordinator for this academic year of 2014-2015. Four years ago, I stepped foot on Indepen-dence High School as a naïve and low self-esteem board mem-ber. Throughout the past four years, Interact helped transform myself into the ambitious and compassionate individual I am today. I have a profound love for Interact; spreading the spirit of volunteerism, seeing others exemplify leadership potential, and making others smile or laugh definitely warms my heart. Interact has helped me learn how to accept, improve, and love myself and everyone else in our community as well as learn how to appreciate life around me. It is my hope that, in unity with Rotary and the 7,000 members of Interact District 5170, you will grow a profound love for Interact and service just like I had. We have already accomplished so much together. Here’s to future years filled with greater heights of success, service, love, and passion. You rock, IHS Interactors.

LEADERSHIP TEAMI N T E R A C T

The Leadership Team would like thank all of our members for their hard work, dedication, and compassion for this past semes-

ter. Without you guys, we wouldn’t have accomplished so much in such a short amount of time. We are truly honored to have led such an amazing group Interactors. We can’t wait to continue our won-

derful journey with you all for second semester!

http://INDEInteract.org/


Documents

Independence Interact First Semester 2014 2015 Newsletter