Giving back to the community in a meaningful way.

It is the common deeply held belief of the students who are part of Salisbury Middle School’s Interact Club.

They are a group of 21 students who meet on a regular basis with their adviser, eighth grade Social Studies teacher Matt Tobias.

It’s early Wednesday morning, Feb. 28 and the Interact Club has gathered in Tobias’ classroom. Janna Kelley begins the meeting by going over how much was raised in recent club events.

The focus centers around the candy grams sale earlier in the month, which raised $205 for PA Caring Hearts. There is sense of disappointment in the room more was not raised. Some blame not enough advertising in the school, others point to the Fastnacht sale happening at the same time.

Both Lauren Scialla and Gia Olds believe next year, something should be done with SMS Live to get the word out about the candy grams fundraiser and the organization who will receive the donation.

As for this year’s fundraiser, Tobias tells the group once he finds out when PA Heart’s next adoption event in Trexlertown’s Pet Smart is taking place, he will bring a few students with him to present the check.

Tobias confirmed to everyone he will bring other students to Sights for Hope, an organization which helps individuals who suffer from loss of sight or are heavily visually impaired.

They are the benefactors of SMS’s semiformal dance, which took place days earlier.

The cause of helping those with vision impairment is of particular importance to Julianna Rach, whose sister Caroline is legally blind, suffering from Stargardt Disease.

Rach explained to the group Caroline is trying to win a tandem bicycle as part of the Great Bike Giveaway.

The giveaway is an initiative of the Friendship Circle of Michigan, a nonprofit whose goal is to help those with special needs.

A discussion among Tobias and the students ensued on how to best help Caroline get votes and support from SMS, including writing to Principal Ken Parliman to help get the word out.

Helping one another, being an active member of the community is at the core of what this club is about.

“I feel it’s really important to give back to your community,” Scialla said. “This school gives a lot of ways to do that and help people who are less fortunate, like giving to the homeless and helping people like Julianna’s sister.”

Scialla is most proud of giving to the homeless, explaining, “That’s really important to make sure that people get something to have when they don’t have anything.”

Olds was moved by the experience of helping the homeless and bringing food to them, “You get to see their reaction when they get food. You get to see how the real world is.”

Tobias has a clear vision of what he expects from this club and the students who are part of it.

“There’s lots of organizations that run events and things, but I always try to make whatever we do help local people,” he explained.

“Why wouldn’t you want to help your local community? And you can see the benefits of what happens in your own communities.”

Tobias made the point local grassroots organizations need support.

As for choosing which organizations to help, “We vote on it. We do research and then pick our top ones. And then we kind of disagree and agree as a group about which ones would be the best,” Rhya Jones said.

Going through the list of what they’ve accomplished so far this year, Karla De La Cruz pointed out, “Keeping track of the events, I’m glad to be part of them.”

“This is student run. I let them decide. If there’s something that they choose where I’m ‘hmmm you might want to rethink that just because of how it is,’ I will put that in. But it’s their vote. Whatever their vote is, goes. That’s what counts,” Tobias said.

Tobias has overseen the Interact Club for 11 years. The club itself has been around for over 20 years, encouraging students to take an active role in the community they live in, making a difference in people’s lives.

And yes, Caroline did get her bicycle.