On any given night, there are approximately 643,067 people experiencing homelessness, according to Green Doors organization. This year, under Rotary International, a human rights organization, MV Interact is focusing on reaching out to the homeless.
MV Interact falls under District 5170, which includes six active clubs in Santa Cruz, Greater Fremont, Silicon Valley, Central Alameda County and Tri-Valley. Interact’s community project for this year is called “Under One Roof.” This project intends to accumulate 90,000 community service hours towards the homeless and reaching out to them as a community.
Senior Jimmy Li, President of MV Interact, anticipates many opportunities for members to serve local homeless shelters, such as in soup kitchens, as opposed to last year’s international focus.
“Last year, the theme was open heart, open arms,” Li said. “[Rotary International] adopted a village in Kenya to help underprivileged kids.”
In the span of last year, Interact launched a project to raise tens of thousands of hours of service to help underprivileged kids. This year, the officers believe that a more localized focus can attract more student interest.
Co-Public Relations Officer, sophomore Anika Hegde, believes that Interact’s theme on homelessness will not only make event volunteering more convenient, but also more meaningful.
“We’re emphasizing on community service so that we can help out people closer to home,” Hegde said. “Thi
s year we’re doing a lot of community help instead of just working at games like Stanford concessions.”
Hegde hopes that people will be more interested in serving the homeless, as this year provides a new opportunity to help out in local communities.
“Every year we do Stanford concessions, every year we do McClellan Ranch Cleanups,” Hegde said. “It kind of differentiates [in terms of] what events we think people will be interested in.”
Junior Saagar Godithi, Events Coordinator of MV Interact, plans for the homeless service events to occur about once a month. They have general events about two times a week, mostly on Fridays and weekends. Because there’s no member requirement or minimum amount of hours, Interact officers hope to gain more student interest to take initiative in the community. The events are normally located in Cupertino, Sunnyvale and Saratoga.
“Right now our main focus with the community is helping homelessness,” Godithi said, “so we are trying to find more events for members to help out at homeless shelters and distribute food for the homeless.”
Godithi believes that the new theme can alter the mindset from simply obtaining required hours to serving a meaningful cause. Whereas other community service clubs have wide-ranging events from creek cleanups to fair preparations, Godithi hopes to distinguish Interact through the club’s focus on community service to the homeless.
“I think it will definitely make students more interested because right now, when people volunteer they just do random events,” Godithi said. “Having an actual shift [toward] helping a certain cause will actually motivate students to feel like they’re doing something because they’ll have an impact on society.”
