Elsie Allen High School’s Interact Club (described to me as Rotary for high schoolers) has been honored as the best club in the northern California region — for the fourth year in a row.

 The club, co-presided over by Ben Nguyen (read a profile of him here: http://bit.ly/cYrpRY) and Alysha Risch, the club has tackled a nearly endless list of community projects this year.

Among them: A project to build a parcourse (those fitness stops along a trail for pullups, situps and the like) along Colgan Creek, weekly volunteering at Bayer Farm (including at Friday’s Tom Sawyer Day, read about that here:  http://bit.ly/cnJHeL), community together activities on campus and a fundraiser for students in Ghana that pulled in $14,000.

“What’s special about this club is they are involved,” said Ross Andress, a Santa Rosa Sunrise Rotarian who coordinates the Elsie Allen Interact Club  along with government teacher Brien Farrell.

Nguyen agreed.

“A lot of clubs focus on raising money,” he said. “Our club is focused on doing stuff.”

I sat in on the club’s Thursday meeting and students – a large number of them – raised their hands when various requests for weekend volunteers were sought.

Anyone want to help with a beach cleanup? Yup.

Help coordinate floats at the Rose Parade? Sure.

Chaperone kids through Tom Sawyer Day at Bayer Farm tomorrow after school? Sign us up.

It was a sight to see.

The award for best club is determined by peers in other Interact clubs from high schools across a handful of northern California counties. The Elsie club was honored last weekend at a two-day leadership camp where students did ropes courses and shared stories of community projects they have undertaken.

I hope to come back to the parcourse project this summer and hopefully do a story on their progress. Stay tuned.