BAR HARBOR – Approximately twenty MDI High School students continue to make a difference in their community and beyond this school year. Led by officers Megan Moore, Valerie DelCid, Xan Rush, Jessica Dominy, Oliver Johnston, faculty advisor Heather Chute Dillon and Bar Harbor (MDI) Rotary Club liaison Sue Kropff, the students hosted a duo of events this past week that helped members of their local community and beyond.
The day after their own high school prom, the students hosted well over fifty members of the Downeast Horizons community for a special prom in the Mount Desert Island High School cafeteria. Students and Downeast Horizons staff and clients danced and celebrated beneath decorations for hours.
“This is the best fun ever,” one Downeast Horizons member announced as he bounded across the cafeteria-turned-dance floor.
According to Chute Dillon, members of Downeast Horizons look forward to the event all year. So do many of the Interact students who created play lists, decorated, secured food and volunteers for the event.
On May 17, the high school club also hosted the showing of Sold, a movie about human trafficking. The students organized and ran the event at the high school, and were supported financially by the Bar Harbor (MDI) Rotary Club. They arranged a speaker about modern slavery for a session after the movie and the funds raised will go to a nonprofit agency to combat human trafficking.
“I participate in Interact Club because I believe in making the world a better place and changing people’s perspectives,” Moore, Interact president, said after the event. “I want people to feel fortunate about their lives. And If they don’t, then I want to change that, too. I think it’s so important that we educate and promote empathy that enables understanding.”
According to Rotary’s President Nominee, Carrie Jones, both events did exactly that. “These students exemplify what is good and hopeful about our community and its future. They take time out of their busy lives to help other people, to enrich themselves and the community about what is happening in the world, and they do it selflessly, not expecting any sort of applause or glory. Every project that they do has a positive impact on this world.”
This is hardly Interact’s first service project. In just the past year, the local chapter has helped with the Bar Harbor Kids Book Festival, MDI YWCA, Friends of Acadia, volunteered for food programs, collected sports equipment, collected toys, raised money to combat human trafficking as well as a multitude of other service projects. The club not only carries out hands-on service, but develops leadership skills amongst its members.
Interact is for students between the ages of 12 and 18. MDI High School’s Interact Club is sponsored by Bar Harbor (Mount Desert Island) Rotary Club, a service organization open to new members and committed to helping its community by having community leaders make friends, exchange ideas, and take action that makes a positive difference.
Since 1985 Rotary clubs have contributed over $1.3 billion towards the global eradication of polio by the mass vaccination of children. 
Thanks to these efforts, the World Health Organization declared Nigeria polio free this September. The local Rotary and Interact clubs make a conscious effort to work on service projects that are both local and international. To learn more visit mdirotary.org
Downeast Horizons assists adults and children with developmental disabilities. Its website is at dehi.org.
Copy by Carrie Jones.
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