Seven of our top high school age Interactors, along with an exceptional group of advisors, will be leaving Phoenix June 29 on their way to Kenya, where they will be transforming lives through their gifts of crutches, wheelchairs and other mobility equipment that were collected by the Interact clubs of our district, and have already been shipped to that country. The group will be returning on July 16.Representing Interact District 5495 as Ambassadors to Kenya this year will be:
• Savannah Causey, a senior at Lake Havasu High School in Lake Havasu City
• Rylee Hanson, a junior at Perry High School in Gilbert
• Ryan Gentry, a junior at Hamilton High School in Chandler
• Colton Cagle, a junior at Westwood High School in Mesa
• Jazael Carrasco, a senior at Bradshaw Mountain High School in Prescott Valley
• Madelynn Mac Donald, a freshman at Mohave High School in Bullhead City
• Allison “Allie” Astorga, a senior at Central High School in Phoenix
Accompanying this year’s Ambassadors as their Team Advisors will be:
• Elizabeth Mahoney, last year’s team leader, who is Rotary District 5495’s chief of staff and will be our district governor for 2020-21
• Hazel McGuffin, returning 2017 ambassador, now a Rotaract member at NAU
• Dylan Boyd, returning 2017 ambassador, a senior at Mohave High School in Bullhead City
• Caleb Lowe, one of last year’s advisors, active Rotex leader and former RYE ambassador to Italy
• Kaley Gilmore, Rotary District 5495’s Inbounds chair for our Rotary Youth Exchange program
• Kevin Pitts, coordinator of the Rotary Leadership Institute and the annual USA-Mexico Friendship Conference
• John Wintersteen, assistant Rotary Youth Services chair and Interact district treasurer
Our Interact district is continuing to work in partnership with David & Candice Talbot and their Colorado-based Rotarian Crutches 4 Africa nonprofit organization, which has so far helped more than 100,000 crippled victims of polio and accidents in a number of African countries. This year’s Interact ambassadors team will be hosted by the Rotary, Rotaract and Interact Clubs of Naivasha, Kenya. Their members will be working together with our team to find and help those who have the greatest need for these life-changing mobility devices our Interactors have sent to that country.
The Interact Crutches 4 Africa Project was initiated by, and has become the signature project of, our Interact District 5495. Our Interact district leadership’s goal is to continue to expand the scope of this project, hoping to eventually make it the signature project of Interact clubs and districts around the world – just as polio eradication has been the signature project of Rotary.
There are three ways Rotarians and others can help support what these remarkable youth are doing by donating to the Interact Crutches 4 Africa project:
- The quickest way is to use a credit or debit card through this URL: YouCaring.com/crutches4africa.
- Contributions can be made directly to the D5495 Interact Service Project Fund bank account. Have the donor make the check out to D5495 Interact Service Project Fund and mail it to our Interact District Treasurer John Wintersteen, 4702 E. Lincoln Dr, Paradise Valley, AZ 85253.
- If tax deductibility of the contribution is desired, checks can be made payable to the Prescott Rotary Club Foundation, with the memo, for Interact C4A Project, and mail to the Prescott Rotary Club Foundation, 100 E. Sheldon, Suite 105, Prescott, AZ 86301.