The editor received the following email from Kanika Gulia, President of the Interact Club at Moorpark High School, who wanted to share some of their projects with the District. The future is in good hands!
 
Animal Shelter Drive
Our Moorpark High School’s Interact Club was involved in an Animal Shelter Drive as a way to help support the Shelter Hope Pet Shop, a non-profit volunteer-based pet shop that showcases shelter animals available for in-store adoption. In this volunteer, we cooperated with the Petco Pet Store to request donations from customers. This volunteer opportunity helped our students in many ways to communicate with local individuals, and on a whole, the community service was a stepping stone for our Interact members to bring them into the adult world in terms of character, social stability and management capabilities. This successful drive also benefitted our Moorpark community by encouraging local residents through simple acts of kindness from teenagers, and through communicating with local customers, in a way, this volunteer helped bring a community together in effort to help support the Shelter Hope Pet Shop. In addition, this event was triumphant success for bringing warm smiles and greetings to the donators and the volunteers.
 
Habitat for Humanity
Joining Habitat for Humanity of Ventura County, Interactors participated in the construction and repair of a home in our community! Habitat's Goals were to create opportunities for all people to live in decent and durable shelters. This volunteer opportunity that allowed students to intimately experience directly serving the people in need in the community. This experience involved cooperating with fellow volunteers and other employees; constructing and repairing residents in ways such as painting; and laughing and enjoying working alongside peers and workers. Our students proved to the world and our community that despite their young age, young students are capable of working zealously in effort to bring aid to those who lack necessities.
 
Trick or Treat so Others Can Eat
Every year, around Halloween, our Interact members walk around the neighborhoods adjacent to the High School to trick or treat to ask for canned foods to donate to the Moorpark Food Pantry to benefit individuals and families in need in Ventura County. Throughout the few years of trick or treating so others can eat, we were often surprised with the exceedingly successful results. During these volunteering occasions, volunteers were required to interact with individuals they didn’t know, yet every year, both our neighbors and volunteers always exchanged warm and polite interactions. Due to this experience,  students were able to improve their social skills and their character as advocates for beneficial change to our community and the world.