Students in Interact Club have lacked attendance this school year, unlike previous years, leading to conflicting viewpoints between optimism and frustration.

Jerry Turk, an adviser of Interact Club, despite the negativity of Mayfield students in Interact Club, stays optimistic. Turk said, “I look forward to our last hospice because it’s so much fun to just hang out with the kids, see them have fun serving people, cooking food, and doing all that stuff. Raking leaves, all the carnivals, and all the fun events are great.”

Turk also said, “Students are everything, they’re the whole reason Interact Club is here. We send students and we show them how important helping other people are.”

However, Fadi Rached, a sophomore and an active member in Interact Club, said, “It’s possible that if not enough students volunteer that there could be no more Interact Club.”

Turk also appreciates the good memories and good deeds that Interact students have done in the past. Instead of focusing on the lack of student involvement in the now, Turk said, “I was with ten Mayfield students on a Saturday morning in early November, and we knocked on a door, and we said, ‘we are going to rake your leaves.’ This 85-year old guy came out, and he started crying.”

Adding to what he said before, Turk also said, “The kids saw his face, and they were like ‘wow, we just did something great today’.”

Additionally, Turk focuses on the effects of Interact Club on people. Turk said, “Everyone wants to change the world. You can’t change the world, but you can help change one person.”

On the other hand, Suvan Patel, a Mayfield student who is an organizer of events in Interact Club, said that the reason why students haven’t been volunteering for Interact Club is because “they are caught up in other things, like schoolwork, and their lives outside of school.”

Rached believes the reason students aren’t volunteering as much in Interact Club as other years is because “I’ve seen that new clubs have been formed and have become popular, and that could be a reason why.”

Rached also said people don’t have enough time for Interact Club, “so they participate in different clubs.”

Rached claims that it is difficult for students who have jobs and a lot of homework “to find the time to volunteer for Interact.”

Patel explained that he has had a struggle getting students to volunteer for his events. He said, “Most times, not enough people or not enough volunteers show up at my events.”

Patel stated how many more volunteers he needs for his events. He said, “I would like to have about 3 more volunteers.”

Rached believes that it is very important that students volunteer for Interact Club,“not only to get the volunteer hours that they need to graduate but also to give back to the community.”

Rached thinks that Interact Club can get more of its members to volunteer for its events by “putting up posters around the school and by speaking about Interact Club on the announcements.”

Patel believes that in order to get more of Interact Club’s members to volunteer for events hosted by Interact Club, “there should be a minimum amount of volunteer hours you need per month. That way, more volunteers will show up at more events.”