PITTSFIELD, Ill. -- Pittsfield High School junior Joe Miller is gaining a better understanding of how to help people around the world without ever leaving home.

He played a part in providing drinking water, chickens and a water buffalo for families in Africa, battling polio, and providing a holiday treat for senior citizens closer to home thanks to involvement in the Rotary Interact club at PHS.

"I know that here we're really spoiled, but we don't really know it. To go out and look at real life things makes you open your eyes a lot more than what you see in Pike County," said Miller, vice-president of the PHS club.

Interact is Rotary International's service club for youth ages 12 to 18. Traditional Rotary clubs sponsor the Interact clubs, which do at least two community service projects each year. One of those programs is designed to further international understanding and goodwill.

"The most important aspect of Interact is the concept that service is a good thing, that community service is an integral part of successful communities and so getting involved in an organization whose focus is predominantly service to others is a good growth experience," said Bill Durall, Interact club liaison and board member of the Pittsfield Rotary Club. "The other thing the kids get out of this is the opportunity for leadership -- to lead meetings, organize activities."

On the second day of Christmas break from school, club members baked cookies and delivered them to nursing home residents in Pittsfield.

"It was a lot of fun," said club member Abbie Price, a PHS junior. "Rotary is a way for me to help out my community."

The students baked cake mix cookies with various toppings, packaged them and then "they go and give them to each of the residents," said PHS Principal Angie Greger, who sponsors the club.

"It was nice seeing all the people out there. They enjoyed us coming," Price said. "You can tell the people appreciated it."

It's the second year for the cookie-baking project and going into the fourth year for the group, which grew from just a handful of students to around 35 members this year.

Club members make Interact activities a priority in schedules already crowded with homework, extracurricular activities and part-time jobs. "It's a great group of young people who are active in a lot of different things. It's a credit to them in wanting to serve their community," Durall said.

"It helps instill that community service mindset, and it forms the potential for new Rotary members," Pittsfield Rotary member Kaye Iftner said.

But key is "the fact they do things that are part of a bigger purpose, not just a local club doing local community service stuff. They're part of an international organization," she said.

The PHS club raised money to build a well in Africa, donated money to Heifer Project International to provide animals to families in need and worked with Rotary Club members during the Pike County Fall Color Drive to raise money for efforts to eradicate polio worldwide.

"It's important the students have an opportunity to serve people in the community and those internationally who are a lot less fortunate than we are. Through some speakers and opportunities, their eyes are opened on some situations that we don't necessarily always think about like malaria and polio that have been eradicated from us for a while, just the needs that people from some other countries have, the things we take for granted," Greger said. "It's providing an opportunity to serve in ways we normally would not have the opportunity to do."

Closer to home, they helped build the county's first Habitat for Humanity house in Griggsville, plan to sponsor a mother-son, daddy-daughter event this winter and worked with the Pittsfield Rotary on its major fundraiser.

"Every year our local club sells radio advertisements to local merchants and organizations, then we take over WBBA radio station for two days that the Color Drive is going on. We broadcast those ads and provide public service announcements to help people know what is going on with all the Color Drive activities. We got Interact students to help us read some of the ads," Durall said.

"Interact is a real positive organization. The kids get a good positive experience out of it."

AT A GLANCE

• Interact is Rotary International’s service club for young people ages 12 to 18.
• The first Interact group met in 1962 with 23 students at Melbourne High School in Melbourne, Fla.
• It has since become one of the most significant and fastest-growing Rotary programs, with more than 10,700 clubs in over 120 countries and geographical areas.
• More than 250,000 young people are involved in Interact.
• Brazil, India, the Philippines and the United States have the highest number of Interact clubs.
Source: rotary.org

--dhusar@whig.com/221-3379