The Interact District 5495 website is currently being updated. We appreciate your patience and understanding as we work to provide you and your clubs with the most reliable information.
_edited_edi.jpg)
About Interact 5495
Welcome to Interact District 5495, where our Interact name (a combination of “International” and “Action”) aptly describes our dynamic and rapidly growing group of more than 80 Arizona high school and middle school service clubs, each sponsored by a Rotary Club, with an international dimension.
Interact is one of three Rotary-sponsored Youth Services programs: the others are our annual leadership Rotary Youth Leadership Award (RYLA) camps and our Rotary Youth Exchange (RYE).
Interact District 5495 proudly partners with the Rotaract and Interact Clubs in Kenya and in Central Mexico as our international partners. Our district also works closely with Interact District 5500, covering the southern third of the State of Arizona.
Our clubs are both campus-based and community-based, offering leadership development and service opportunities to all youth ages 12-18, without regard to gender, creed or color. Like Rotary, our motto is “Service Above Self.”
District Administration, Events and Projects
Interact District 5495 is governed by a selected high school-age District Council led this year by District Governor
Kassandra Macias and her executive team, Executive Assistant Governor Natalie Pacheco, District Secretary Hannah
Lewis and Past District Governor Georgia Bukata. Also serving on this year’s Council are 21 highly motivated and
capable Assistant Governors. Each Council member has an assigned group of Interact clubs to communicate with,
encourage and support. Their District Council holds an annual training and planning in July and meets at least
monthly online.
Serving as coaches and advisors to the District Council are the Rotary District Interact Committee. That active
committee includes District Interact Chair, Art Harrington (arthts@msn.com), Assistant Chairman Elizabeth Mahoney (elizabeth.mahoney@ymail.com), who also coordinates our Interact Ambassadors Program, Teresa Haire (teresalynn0928@gmail.com), Ken Kelley (ken@kelleysinsurance.com), Ed Koeneman ed@koeneman.org), Sally Walker (sallynwalker@gmail.com) and Interact Treasurer, Rex Townsend (rext5495@gmail.com).
Interact District 5495 annually sponsors two conferences each year. The Fall Leadership Conference is being held
virtually this year on Saturday, October 28, 2023. The Interact District Conference will be hosted by the Interact
Club of Boulder Creek High School in Anthem. It is being held from 9:00 – 4:00 on Saturday, February 24.
Registration for this conference opens on January 2nd. The cost, which includes lunch and materials, is $30 per
person; but an early bird discount of $5 is available if your Interact club registers by January 24.
Our International Project
Interact District 5495’s signature international service project is our Interact Crutches 4 Africa Project — in partnership with the Rotarian Crutches 4 Africa nonprofit organization. Our Interact clubs each year work together to collect crutches, walkers, wheelchairs and other mobility devices that ship in 40-ft shipping containers to our International partners in Kenya for distribution there to those most in need of these mobility devices in the Rift Valley of Kenya. In 2023 our Interact district successfully sent our sixth team of our top Interactors as Arizona Interact Ambassadors to Kenya for two weeks in July, and our second Interact Ambassadors Team to Central Mexico. It is essential that we raise $50,000 each year to cover the shipping costs for the containers, along with the airfare and other expenses associated with sending our Ambassadors Teams to these countries to help distribute these mobility devices and provide other services, working with our partners in these countries.
