“All of our donations are going to be given to RYSE, which is the Residential Youth Services and Empowerment organization,” said Interact Club president, Senior Jayde-Emaree Ramos. RYSE provides homeless youth ages 14-24 with shelter and other services including medical care, meals, and educational and employment programs.

Interact Club sought donations of books, stationery, class notes, job sources, and hygienic products for RYSE.

“Being able to talk to them, we decided it would be best to not do a clothing drive or canned food drive because it is already a residential home,” said Ramos. When they met with RYSE, they found that many of the youth wanted to continue their education and they decided to base the drive around that.

“This is a chance for them to get books on how to get started getting their GEDs if they dropped out of high school and didn’t finish, prepping for the ASVAB because a lot of them want to join the military, and a lot of them want to go back to school. So, I wanted to do our donation drive based around that,” said Ramos.

The donation drive ran from November 14 to 23. Students dropped off donations in the student parking lot after school and in the drop-off boxes located around the school. Drop-off boxes were located in rooms 141, 232, 191, 211, 133, and the band room. 

The Interact Club is a club dedicated to community service sponsored by the Pearl Harbor Rotary.

“We don’t really have a set schedule, but our club is based around humanitarian crises and this year our specific issue is to target homeless youth in Hawaii… Anyone can join if they feel like this is something that they want to do,” said Ramos.

Students who are interested in joining Interact Club can talk to Mrs. Higashi in room 211, or contact the Interact Club via Instagram @radfordinteract.