Our experience as Rotary Interact Presidents at Howells has been unique, challenging and extremely rewarding. We have worked alongside our peers to come up with exciting new ways of raising money for deserving causes and strived to make events that our peers and staff will enjoy, such as our annual College Mixer, Quiz Night and Netball Match. We thank the Rotary Club of Cardiff Breakfast for inviting us to their breakfast meetings, where we met with Rotarians and other Interact Presidents from Whitchurch High and the Cathedral School to celebrate our fundraising endeavours.
Over the course of the year we have raised over £2000 for both national and local charities, many of which our committee members have a personal connection with. Our first event, the annual quiz night was attended by College students, staff, and Rotarians alike. It included several rounds of puzzling questions as well as a raffle, raising in total £302 for Mind Cymru. Our biggest event, the College mixer where students came together after school to enjoy an evening together raised almost £1300 for Headway Cardiff. A big thank you to the staff who gave up their evening to join us!
Other enjoyable events include the Charity Leg Waxing, Easter Egg sale, Year 7 film nights, Valentine’s roses sale, a house competition and several bake sales. These events have allowed us to support charities such as Llamau, Martha’s Place, End Polio Now, Velindre, Chernobyl Children Cancer Care Cardiff, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the Motor Neurone Disease Association.
The strength of our College community and the synergy between our peers and members of staff has played a key role in the success of our endeavours. We’d like to take the opportunity to firstly thank Mr Smith whose presence at every meeting and event has been invaluable. We thank him for his utmost patience and willingness to give up his time for Rotary Interact. We would like to express our extreme gratitude to Mrs Matthews and Mrs Eling who have been instrumental in ensuring all our events have run smoothly and have kindly given up their time to guide us in our roles. We would also like to thank Frau Sadler, Mrs Richards, Mr Allen and all the College Tutors for their tremendous encouragement and support at all our events.
We would like to say a huge thank you to our Year 13: Miriam, Natasha, Lowri, Izzy T, Issy M, Jenna, Erin, and Elizabeth. Each member has given up a lot of time and effort to support Rotary Interact and we thank them for contribution. A big thanks to our Head Boy and Head Girl, Will and Millie who have always been willing to give up their time to support us at every event, including compèring at the quiz night. A shout out to the Year 13 Young Leaders and House Captains who have attended and helped at so many events. A special thanks also to Esther who has kindly baked for us at every one of our bake sales.
Everyone in our Year 13 committee has worked extremely hard as a team to ensure the success of our events. However, one person has stood out in going above and beyond to support Rotary Interact. We are delighted to announce that this year’s winner of the Paul Spencer Award for her outstanding commitment is our Treasurer Miriam. We hope that Miriam accepts this award as a small token of our gratitude for all her hard work behind the scenes.
We are very grateful to Helen Davies, Richard Cunningham and the Rotarians at Rotary Club of Cardiff Breakfast for their encouragement and involvement in our events over the past year. We thank everyone not only for their financial contributions but also in giving their time - whether that’s in baking cakes or agreeing to have their legs waxed. We’d also like to thank the anonymous donor who gave £120 to the Rotary Club of Cardiff Breakfast for its Interact groups. It has been a pleasure to work with our peers and staff and we wish the new team, led by Pascha and Rookmini, the best of luck in all their future endeavours.
We have made some truly unforgettable memories working together as Rotary Interact Co-Presidents and we hope to take all the lessons we have learnt into the future with us.
Akanksha and Megan
Rotary Interact Presidents 2019-20