The Interact Club at Gilpin County School has been raising money and doing hands on public service projects for over 20 years. Interact is sponsored by the Peak to Peak Rotary Club. There are thousands of Interact Clubs all over the world. This year the members of the club wanted to do a fundraiser that would really make a difference in people’s lives. They wanted to connect to people who are really suffering.

After discussing many possibilities they chose to support refugees from Ukraine. With the war in Ukraine going on for almost a year they grasped the effect the turmoil had on the citizens of Ukraine. Through their research they learned that over a quarter of Ukraine‘s population has had to leave their homes to find safety. Eight million of those people have had to leave the country as refugees, creating the largest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II. Neighboring countries took in millions, while some of the refugees found their way to the United States.

More than 110,000 refugees were admitted through a new U.S. government program called Uniting for Ukraine. The program is built on the idea of group sponsorship. With the idea that it takes a whole community to support a refugee. Sponsorship involves a group of people in a community welcoming a Ukrainian family and making sure they are supported while they get settled. These relationships often turn into friendships that last much longer.

The Interact Club chose to fundraise for Welcome.US, an organization that connects sponsors and refugees. Welcome.US believes that every community in the country should welcome and support new neighbors through sponsorship. While the Interact Club is raising money for the Welcome. US Welcome Fund, members hope that community groups and neighborhoods are inspired to sponsor refugees. 100% of the donations to the Welcome Fund go to helping refugees settle into the U.S. through frontline organizations that support newcomers.

In order to make fundraising fun at the school the Interact Club is providing a root beer float to the winning classes that raise the most money in the elementary school. The competition is a little more fierce in the middle school and high school, where students are in the midst of a penny war.

With the hopes of helping others, students bring in as many pennies and also paper money to add to the balance of their classes total. They need to watch out though because silver coins are sabotage. Students put their silver coins in another class’s jar to subtract from their total. Members of the Interact Club have been sharing preliminary totals to inspire more competition and fundraising.

The fundraiser ends on March 16. If members of the community outside of the school would like to donate to the cause, they can drop donations off at the front desk at Gilpin County School or contact Curt Halsted, the Interact Club Advisor, at chalsted@gilpin.k12.co.us