Portage Northern High Schools Interact club provides a way for students to help out individuals in need in the Portage Community. Everyone who is interested is always allowed to attend any one of the meetings and can sign up to help with various fundraising activities. Recently, students have been encouraged to donate to the Foster Care Drive. The drive took place from February 18th to the 21st.

Junior Harbaksh Bath came in to familiarize Interact Club students with the Young Dems. “The Young Dems decided to do the Foster Care Drive because we noticed the terrible conditions that children entering the foster care system face and we wanted to do anything we could to help them,” she said.  In order to help children in need, posters were made at the club meeting to notify other students about the Drive which collected clothing, personal items, diapers, and more. “The drive will help the children because they enter the system with basically nothing except the clothes that they have on so the items will help them have a more comfortable transition,” Bath said. “We wanted to donate the items to the Family and Children’s Services in Kalamazoo so the donations will help children in our community.”

There are many other teens at Northern who decided they wanted to help out too. “I think people should donate to the foster care drive because obviously the children are in need of the essentials and it’d be wonderful to help them and see a smile on their face,” said Junior Sonam Raghubanshi. “I participated in making posters and donating. Being in the foster care system is hard enough and I am so glad that we can help ease the transition with our donations,” said Interact leaders Sara Gleason.