Creepy Caldwell
The Creepy Caldwell Festival was very successful and was the largest event ever hosted on CCCTI’s campus, with somewhere between 400-600 visitors on the campus at any given time for the duration of the festival. 350-400 people are estimated to have went through the trail, and 300-350 are estimated to have attended the trunk-or-treat. The CECHS Interact Club has earned $280 by participating in the festival.
T-Shirts
The club will be purchasing T-shirts again this year with the same design as last year. An estimated price will be available at the next meeting based on how many people signed up to purchase one today.
Meeting Times
There has been some discrepancy with knowing exactly when the meetings will begin. The standard for future meetings will be from 3:00-3:30.
Operation Christmas Child
Operation Christmas Child is an annual event hosted by Samaritan’s Purse that wrap and send shoeboxes full of necessities and gifts to children in third-world countries for Christmas. Their processing center is located in Boone, and they are a non-denominational Christian organization. The club is looking at Operation Christmas Child as an optional service project for the holidays, with the headcount at approximately 26. If this many students attend, then the club will need additional parent volunteers because of Samaritan’s Purse required 1:8 parent:student ratio. Family members, including siblings, are welcome to attend, as long as they are older than 13. The club will likely schedule the event over winter break, so be on the lookout for an email confirmation for Mrs. Chavers and be prepared to register for the group.
Committees
Given the growth of the club in the last few months, forming committees has proven to be the most efficient way to plan multiple events at the same time. Today, three new committees were formed: the tree-decorating committee, the military care package committee, and the toy drive committee. Each are elaborated on below.
Tree-Decorating Committee
The club will be decorating at least one tree in Lenoir, Hudson, and Granite Falls. Light Up Lenoir will be held on Thursday, November 16 at 6 PM, and the theme will be “Holiday Music on Main”. Light Up Granite Falls will be held on Monday, November 20 at 5:30 PM, and the theme will be “Movie Time Christmas”. Light Up Hudson will be held on Monday, November 27 at 6 PM, and the theme will be “A Patriotic Christmas”. This committee was formed to plan times to make Christmas tree decorations for these events. They will start meeting this Tuesday, November 15, and other members are welcome to join and craft decorations with them.
Military Care Package Committee
There is a unit currently stationed in Cherry Point in Havelock, North Carolina that will be deploying around Christmas to an unknown location. This information will not be revealed until the last minute for security reasons, but they will definitely be staying on a boat for the duration of their deployment. The collection for them will be hosted in the community, not just on the high school and college campus. This subcommittee was formed to compile a list of requests from the military wives into an advertisement flyer and to start the collection in the community. The drive will begin on Wednesday, November 15 and end on Wednesday, December 13.
Toy Drive Committee
Last year, the club took up a collection of gently used toys at CECHS to donate to Hudson United Methodist Church’s Stock-a-Stuffing event. This year, HUMC has asked the club to help collect new $1 toys. This collection will be hosted only on the high school and college campus and will not extend into the community. This subcommittee was formed to make an advertisement flyer and set up collection points in the CECHS cafeteria and the CCCTI library. They also established that the drive will begin on Monday, November 20 and end on Wednesday, December 6.
Updating By-Laws
The officers met today to work on establishing by-laws and requirements for membership in the club. Starting at the next meeting, there will be an online sign-in form to better keep track of membership. General members will be required to attend ½ of meetings, and officers will be required to attend ¾ of meetings. There will also be a service log posted to the Interact website that will serve to keep track of what Interact service events you have participated in. Participation will be loosely defined as planning, donations, and/or attendance to a service event.
Next Meeting
The club’s next meeting will be on Thursday, December 14 from 3:00-3:30. Bring food!