By Gary Nager,
So, even though I’ve included something about the Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel (which meets Wednesdays at noon at Ciao! Italian Bistro in the Shops at Wiregrass mall) in every issue since I officially joined the club a few months ago, I couldn’t let the events of the past few weeks go unmentioned in this issue, as the WC Rotary officially inducted its first-ever Rotary Interact Club from Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH) on Nov. 7, also at Ciao!
“Interact” is the name given to Rotary-sponsored clubs for young people ages 12-18 who join together to tackle the issues in their community that they care most about, including hands-on service projects, making international connections and developing leadership skills.
The WC Rotary actually is sponsoring two Interact clubs, one at WRH and one at Land O’Lakes High. Each Interact Club has adult sponsors from its sponsoring Rotary Club, as well as a faculty advisor from the school affiliated with the Interact. For the WRH Interact Club, WC Rotary members Don Bryan and Monica Carper are the Interact Club’s adult sponsors and the WRH faculty advisor is Linda Sherwood.
According to Rotary.org, every Interact Club has to have at least two service projects each year, one that benefits the club members’ community and one that encourages international understanding. The WRH Interact Club members participated in their first such project the weekend before Halloween, when they volunteered at the annual Main St. Zephyrhills Haunted House. Main St. Zephyrhills raises money to help beautify the downtown Zephyrhills area and the Haunted House is that organization’s primary fund raiser each year.
And then, the WRH Interact Club was officially inducted by the Wesley Chapel Rotary in a dinner ceremony also held at Ciao!
To me, perhaps the most amazing thing about this new club of intelligent, career-oriented young people is that the president elected by the WRH Interact Club members is 16-year-old Rotary Youth Exchange student Charlotte Nymand of Denmark, who is spending this school year at WRH and staying a few months at several different homes of WC Rotary members.
During her multiple updates to the WC Rotary Club, Charlotte has shown herself to be confident, personable and fluent in six languages, including her perfect English. I don’t know about you, but I don’t remember students from other countries leading any of the clubs at my high school.
“I didn’t know if I could handle being president with my schedule,” Charlotte said. “But, I wanted to do it and (the other Interact Club members) elected me.”
Although Charlotte, who also makes appearances at other Florida Rotary clubs, will be leaving at the end of this school year, the WRH Interact Club will definitely be in good hands next year, too, as the following WRH Interact students also were inducted: president-elect Casey Chitty, secretary Kayla Lawson, treasurer Jessica DeMarco and executive Board members Donald Bryan, Ashleigh Hans and Preston Parilo.
Good luck to all of the Interact-ers.
Last Issue’s Page 1 Woes
I thought our last Wesley Chapel issue was one of our best ever until I got to work on Mon., Oct. 21 (after we went to press on Sat., Oct. 19), and found out that I had missed a tragically major news development that occurred just a few hours after we finished that issue.
I was really happy with my top-of-page-1 story and pictures from the first-ever “Festival of Flight” at the Tampa North Aero Park on Oct. 19 until I found out on Mon. (after the papers already had been printed) that, at about 3 p.m. on Sat., a wing-walking performer named Mark Curto had fallen off the wings of a World War II-era biplane to his death (see pg. 8). The part that stunned me was that I returned to the Festival Sat. night, to take pictures of the “Balloon Glow,” and no one mentioned the incident from earlier that day. I heard there were comments posted on Twitter the same day, but I had just finished the issue and I guess I wasn’t paying attention. Nowadays, the news never sleeps, but I was snoozing in this case. Sorry.
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