On March 27, Interact hosted a “Color A Smile” event, where students bonded through filling out a variety of coloring sheets with pencils provided by the club. Each sheet would later be donated to children and seniors to brighten their day, and students earned volunteer service hours for their efforts.
Junior Interact Board Member Jenny Tang said the event went well.
“I feel like coloring is something that everyone has fun doing,” Tang said.
The idea behind the event was that people are in need of a smile, Tang said.
“You need things to cheer you up. In our event, people can color, and color to give to others. When people receive the paper, they’ll be cheered up,” she said.
“Color A Smile” is a nonprofit organization that the members felt had values that matched with Interact’s values, Tang said. She thought it was really inspirational, she added.
“Their values are that senior citizens don’t really get help that much,” Tang said. “As well as children, even though children like coloring, I know people have been coloring for them.”
The coloring activities work because they’re simple, freshman board member Riya Shah said. It’s a simple thing that you can do to brighten someone’s day: just giving them a coloring sheet, she added.
“Also, it’s a helpful way to remind our members that it’s really just that easy to make a difference in someone’s day, and it’s benefiting them as it gives them service hours.” Shah said. “It’s really just about showing them that it’s easy to help someone while helping yourself as well, and it’s also about knowing that you’ve helped someone today.”
The “Color A Smile” activity is new for this year, but is one of many of Interact’s service events, freshman Namrutha Bhat said
“It’s either fundraisers that we donate the money to charity through, like the larger interactive rotary areas, or we’re constantly doing service events,” Bhat said. “We can get community service hours and give back to their local communities.”
To partner with the organization, Interact members just talked to them about how the organization can help the members get involved, Shah said.
“It’s really just about reaching out to them and just saying, ‘Hey, we’re a club, and we want to help you guys,’” Shah said.
Interact is a club for community service, Bhat said. So, our main motto is service to ourselves, she added.
“We do what we can to give back to the community. Our smile is giving a smile to the people in need. We just want to do what we can to brighten someone’s day,” Bhat said.
