Interact - Rotarians Working Together To Set Up New Interact Club
Article by Desmond Jordan – Rotary Club of Oakville Trafalgar (RCOT)
This is an inspiring example of how Rotarians from different clubs working together can achieve things they might not be able to do on their own.
Local youth engagement champions, Desmond Jordan of the Rotary Club of Oakville Trafalgar (RCOT) and new Rotarian Lina Sakkab of the Passport South Club, have collaborated to open the doors to a new Interact Club at St Thomas Aquinas (STA) Catholic High School in Oakville.
Through Desmond, fellow Interact Mentor John Kubacki and others, RCOT have been trying for over a decade to get an invitation to open an Interact Club at St Thomas Aquinas. Their club has historically had very strong student connections to the school through Rotary International Student Exchange and the Education Awards in particular, so opening an Interact Club seemed an obvious next step.
However, they just could not get an opportunity to bring Rotary and Rotaract into the school until Lina came along and opened the door from the inside.
Lina is a Family Settlement Specialist for the Halton Catholic District School Board and Desmond is the New Generations Chair at RCOT. They first met at the Oakville Cluster Celebration hosted by District Governor Lesley Barmania. Lina and her Rotarian husband Rudy Habesch (District Governor 2021-2022) told Desmond that they felt that the time was right to approach St Thomas Aquinas one more time. Desmond followed up with Lina who facilitated the introduction to STA Principal Mr. Adriano Perusin and VP Mrs. Antonia Montanaria, who after a few meetings were willing to support the idea.
Desmond reached out to with District Interact Chair Uche Okugo who promptly provided him with relevant resources and advice.
As a result of their combined efforts they are now on the cusp of inaugurating ’the newest Interact Club in the world’ and are looking forward to the election of its first student Board of Directors.
This is an exciting development for Rotary in Oakville and for District 7080. It also exemplifies the benefit of spreading your Rotary wings to make an effort to get to know more of your fellow members from other clubs. You might be surprised by what comes out of it. Maybe your club could take a fresh look at opening an Interact club if a neighbouring club shares the initiative, or maybe together you could get involved in Rotary Youth Exchange. Whatever you do, take this success story as a prompt to think what more you, your club and neighbouring clubs can do to strengthen youth engagement initiatives. After all, high school students are our best hope for a new generation of future Rotarians.