Rotary Club Of Townsend, MT   

The event was sponsored by Rotary, Bulldog Booster Club, BHS, Broadwater County Lions Club, and Fun for Life Program. Rotary organized the event and the meal which was served by the Rotary-sponsored Interact Club members. Rotary hopes to continue this event each year after seeing how much the students enjoyed performing in public. The event had to be cancelled in February of 2021 due to COVID-19 concerns. The 2022 event is planned in February.

Please volunteer to help judge your school’s speech and drama tournaments. You will be surprised at the talent of these students.

Children were registered and received a gift packet. They also received a free, fitted bike helmet from Child Care Connections. Then bike tires, brakes, seats, and handlebars were safety-checked by Townsend Tire and other volunteers before the children could ride through courses to learn how to properly ride on city streets, including how to hand signal to stop and make right and left turns. Finally, the kids rode through an obstacle course which included a kiddie car wash. There were prizes and snacks for all who attended. Some bicycles were given away as door prizes.

On the other half of the parking lot, the Broadwater County Sheriff’s Office and another certified car seat safety technician checked car seats for safety. A limited number of new car seats were given away on a first-come-first-serve basis if car seats did not meet safety requirements.

In 2017, four exceptional students from Broadwater High School (BHS) were sponsored by the Rotary Club of Townsend to attend RYLA. These same students came back to form a Rotary-sponsored Interact Club in Townsend. In addition, two of the RYLA campers were invited back as junior counselors at the RYLA Camp in 2018.

In 2018, six students from BHS attended RYLA camp in addition to the two junior counselors. This was the most students from any one high school in Montana at RYLA Camp! One of the BHS students, Ty Steele, was invited back as a Junior Counselor for the 2019 RYLA Camp. Another student, Daniel Wyse was invited back as a Senior Counselor. A third student, Parker Hufnagel, was selected as an alternate Senior Counselor in case one of the senior counselors had to cancel for any reason.

In July 2019, the Rotary Club of Townsend sponsored another five RYLA campers plus the two counselors! Again, these seven students from Townsend were the largest contingent to attend RYLA from any high school in Montana!

In 2020, the RYLA camp was cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns. In 2021, the camp resumed, and Rotary sent one RYLA student to camp.

The Rotary Club of Townsend is proud to support BHS students attending RYLA Camp. It is a life-changing, leadership training event. Thank you, Montana Rotary District 5390, for providing Montana students this opportunity.

Slice of Summer includes Youth Activities that run from 1:00-5:00 pm and Family Activities that run from 5:00-8:00 pm. Youth activities typically include free use of the swimming pool, free bouncy rooms, face painting, a climbing wall, a magic show, sand pile treasure hunts, Snapology of Helena, free movies in the park after dark, etc. Kids get free lemonade and fruit from Rotary. Family activities include free musical entertainment and reasonably priced food and drink. Inexpensive food, starting mid-afternoon, is provided for families through 8 pm including hamburgers, hot dogs, nachos, pizza, ice cream, etc. Music begins at 5 pm and goes to 8 pm. Many local bands have played at Slice of Summer over the years.

In 2020, Slice of Summer had to be cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns, but Rotary and the Chamber of Commerce teamed up to bring drive-in movies to the Fairgrounds. Many children in the community had never been to a drive-in movie.

In 2021, the Bike Safety Rodeo took the place of the June Slice of Summer event.

Interact is Rotary International’s service club for young people, ages 12-18. It gives them the chance to make a real difference while having fun. Every Interact Club carries out two service projects a year: one that helps their school or community and one that promotes international understanding. Interact helps young people: connect with community leaders, develop leadership skills, make international connections, and discover more opportunities to connect with Rotary.

The students recruited interested classmates and pitched the idea of an Interact Club to the Rotary Club of Townsend. According to former Rotary President Jeff Langlinais, “Our Rotary Club had been trying for years to get an Interact Club started; so, when the RYLA kids came back to town so motivated to start the Club, everything just fell into place.”

Together, with a handful of other students who also wanted to make a difference in their community, the campers founded the community-based Townsend Interact Club which was chartered in January 2018. Rotary provides a base budget of $1,000 per year to Interact.

Under the leadership of Club advisor Beth Ihle and the first Club president Daniel Wyse, Club members got to work. Their first mission was to bring RYLA trainer Karen Grosz of Canvas Creek Consulting to Townsend for “Freshman Team Building and Leadership Training.” Held just weeks after the Club was formed, the training was a smashing success. Feedback from BHS students and faculty was so positive that a follow-up training was scheduled for freshmen a few months later in April 2018 and continues each spring.

The Interact Club students were also asked by BHS faculty to help with Freshman orientation for the 2019-2020 school year and every year since.

In addition to the Freshmen training and orientation, the Club completes local and international projects each year. For international service, Club members hosted Rotary International Exchange students over rodeo weekend, provided ShelterBoxes to Haitian families in need, and made a service trip to Guatemala. In 2020, a planned trip to Morocco had to be cancelled due to COVID19 concerns.

On the local level, some of the activities Interact completed are…

• Helped the Rotary with Slice of Summer and Fall Fest
• Landscaped the local HeadStart Preschool yard
• Helped paint the Senior Center
• Helped remodel the Broadwater Food Pantry
• Helped paint a room at the proposed Townsend Recreation Activity Center
• Helped with Adopt-A-Highway cleanup
• And others…

In Summer 2018, Rotarian Jen Lane became the new Club advisor. The Club has continued to thrive under Jen’s leadership. Jeanne Steele, a parent of four Interact Club members, says, “Jen has the energy to match the enthusiasm of these young adults and the Club continues to grow.”

Learn more about Interact at: https://www.rotary.org/en/get-involved/interact-clubs.

Every spring, Rotary is proud to award a minimum of three scholarships to BHS students. The awards presented are given to honor past Rotarians:

• Rotary Frank Holloway Scholarship for $2,000
• Rotary Holling/White Scholarship for $1,500
• Rotary Mel Pottruff Scholarship for $1,000

Typically, a dozen students are interviewed to determine their service to the community, following Rotary’s motto “He profits most who serves best”. All applicants must demonstrate their unselfish community involvement and citizenship. Many of these students show initiative that will make them successful in life.