Berkshire Interact Club Helps Those in Need
January 19, 2010
What a way to “ring” in the new year!
The Berkshire High School Interact Club has been busy helping others this winter. Interact members teamed up on December 19th to ring the bell for the Salvation Army. Posted outside of Middlefield Walmart, members danced and sang to bring in the holiday cheer and helpful donations. For the seven hours that students took shifts keeping the bells in motion, the managed to raise well over $800 for the Salvation Army this year. The Salvation Army’s Red Kettle Christmas Campaign enables the Army to provide food, toys and clothing to over 6 million people during the Christmas season and helps more than 34 million Americans recovering from all kinds of personal disasters nationwide. The Salvation Army functions through the broadest array of social services that range from providing food for the hungry, relief for disaster victims, assistance for the disabled, outreach to the elderly and ill, clothing and shelter to the homeless and opportunities for underprivileged children. The Red Kettle campaign, first started in San Francisco in 1891, has traditionally been The Salvation Army’s most prominent fund-raiser. The Berkshire Interact club has been participating in this event since its inception in 2003, where they are typically able to raise around $1000 annually for the organization. For more information, go to http://www.salvationarmyusa.org.
The Berkshire Interact club also sent a shipment of over 200 pairs of eyeglasses to New Eyes for the Needy. New Eyes is an organization which dispenses these recycled spectacles to needy individuals in other countries. Each year New Eyes for the Needy provides recycled eyeglasses to several hundred thousand people in developing nations. The Club sends eyeglasses to New Eyes for the Needy in Short Hills, New Jersey, where the glasses are sorted by volunteers and repackaged for distribution by missionaries and international charitable organizations for distribution overseas. These glasses are given free of charge to the poor and under-privileged in dozens of countries. The cost of eyeglasses in many developing nations is equivalent to a year's salary. Without assistance from New Eyes, hundreds of thousands of people would go without the glasses they need to work, read, or attend school. In fact, New Eyes often provides the only pair of eyeglasses a person will ever own and the Berkshire Interact Club is proud to be a part in making that happen. The interact club will continue to collect old or unwanted eyeglasses throughout the year and send additional shipments as necessary. If you would like to donate your old glasses, please call 440.834.3380 x3631 to make arrangements for pickup, or drop your glasses off at the Berkshire Junior/Senior High School office where collection bins are available. Junior Interact President, Katie Lasco and Junior Interact Secretary, Sarah Colwill pose with the pile of glasses prior to shipping.
