This year from Jan. 23 to Feb. 4 Interact Club hosted a coat drive. The coats were donated to the Bears 34th Annual Coat Drive which aims to help people in the Chicagoland area who are less-fortunate stay warm throughout the winter. 

The purpose of Interact club is to promote leadership with volunteer opportunities and community service projects. In the past, they have done shoe drives, volunteered at the Hinsdale Humane Society, and did a park clean up. Overall, their goal is to make the community a better place. 

“Interact connects groups of people and provides social awareness to issues going on in the world,” Interact club co-president Emma Schultz ‘24 said. “It also creates important friendships and bonds.” 

Schultz came up with the idea for a coat drive all on her own, then the club promoted it by hanging posters around the school and making daily announcements. Collection bins were placed at both North and South campuses. Overall, there were more coats collected at South campus than at North campus, Interact club co-sponsor Mary Decker said.

“Emma spearheaded this,” Decker said. “She saw the opportunity and it is very easy to do, we have such a large community and are able to tap into the resources of the community. It’s that time of year when everyone has the urge to clean out their closets.”

In order to make the coats a little more special, Interact members made handwritten notes to put inside of the coat pockets, member Avery Jasinski ‘24 said.

“It felt really good knowing you are going to make someone’s day,” Jasinski said. “Someone will appreciate the notes and it made me feel good and selfless.”

It is important to help the community because LT gets so much from the community and it is important for students to give back when they can, Jasinski said.

“Some areas of this community have a lot of resources, not everyone, but a lot of them do,” Decker said. “And if they can share the resources others in the community can benefit from that.”