Tennessee club wins Interact video contest grand-prize
By Ryan Hyland
Rotary International News -- 27 January 2012
The Interact Club of Episcopal School of Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, is the grand-prize winner of the 2011 Interact video contest with its entry, “Change 4 Change.”
The video tells the story of how students at the Episcopal School of Knoxville collaborated to produce an illustrated children’s book about the worldwide effort to eradicate polio. Managed by eighth-grade Interactors and club advisers Laurie Coburn and Susan Lancaster, the book aims to raise funds and build awareness for Rotary’s End Polio Now campaign.
Kindergarten through fifth-grade students drew pictures for the book, also titled Change 4 Change, after the Interactors gave presentations to the children about polio and Rotary’s campaign. For the video, club members picked drawings and asked some of the children to read from the book.
Coburn, who authored the book with the Interactors, says it shows how children in their own community can help kids in other parts of the world.
“The book project was a way for younger students to learn about how the disease impacts children their own age,” says Coburn. “The Interactors did an incredible job of bringing students from the entire school together on this project.”
Interactors directed, produced, and created original music for the video.
Club president Rhetta Botts says her fellow members were excited after learning their video had won the contest.
“It took a while for the information to sink in but after a few minutes passed, the feeling of accomplishment set in,” says Botts. “I’m very proud of what we put together and the effort of every member of the club.”
Botts says her favorite part of making the video was interacting with the younger students. “It was fun to see the drawings they made, and hear all the questions and comments about how we are helping other children across the globe,” she says.
The club also organizes “Purple Pinkie Friday” where students who bring in 60 cents, the cost of inoculating one child, get their pinkie fingernail painted purple. This is how volunteers keep track of who’s received a vaccine during a National Immunization Day. In February, Interactors are selling the book as a fundraiser for Rotary’s End Polio Now campaign.
“I hope that the video and book show how close we are to ending polio,” says Botts. “If everyone pitches in, even a little bit, we can eradicate it.”
The third annual Interact video contest received entries from Interact clubs and their sponsor Rotary clubs in 11 countries. Entrants were asked to create a short video (no more than three minutes) about how they demonstrate international action. Entries were judged by a panel that included members of the 2011-12 Rotaract and Interact Committee and RI staff. The winning club will receive an engraved plaque and a signed letter from RI President Kalyan Banerjee.
In addition to the grand-prize winner, three clubs were selected as finalists: the Interact Club of Alexandria Sporting, Egypt; the Interact Club of Raffles Institution, Singapore; and the Interact Club of Webb School of Knoxville, Tennessee, USA.
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