Rotary Interact Club
RRRS, along with Rochester Northwest Rotary, sponsors a rotary interact club at the Rochester International Academy (RIA) located at Jefferson High School. RIA is the city school for newly arrived students from other countries, almost exclusively refugees.
This is the third year for the interact club, which has been made up of refugees since its inception.
This year the club has more than 20 members from 7 different countries. The purpose of interact clubs is to develop in student members the concept of “service above self”, which is the rotary international’s motto.
The club focuses on raising money to support projects in third world countries. In past years, the club has sent money to Africa to help with an elementary school, and has raised money to start a water project in Thailand where some of the refugee interact club members are from. The main source of income for the club is the sale of dwarf sunflowers which they raise from seeds in the school’s greenhouse.
This year, the club has organized two other committees besides the one that works the greenhouse, one being a college committee which will seek colleges to give presentations to students and a website committee to form their own website. We will keep you posted!
Plants are Growing!
The Interact Club is doing very well. The students have planted hundreds of plants ranging from sunflowers to tomatoes to okra to peppers. Every week they try to plants 100-200 bulbs. So far, the students are very happy with the results as well as learning how to plant and what it takes to maintain it. Once the plants grow larger, they will be moved from the greenhouse to a larger garden.
We've Moved Again
Our offices have moved from 552 Avis street to our new home at 1442 Dewey Avenue, between Flower City and Ridgeway, right across from the Sunoco gas station. We are grateful for the time that we were able to stay at 552 Avis Street.
Our Van
We have also acquired a 12 passenger van. This is an older dodge van with a ton of miles on it, but it has cleaned up well and runs. We need the van to transport people and goods. Keep an eye out for us on the road.
Our Temp Agency
We have had a great first year with our temp agency, having had more than 30 refugees working at one time in 4 different locations. It is great to see the satisfaction that these folks get in being able to work to support themselves. It is equally pleasing to hear the compliments from employers who appreciate the great work ethic, dependability and commitment that refugees bring to the job. As we go into year two of the program we look to develop career profiles on our refugees so that we can guide them to more permanent occupations.
