LAHS Interact students gather around the bake sale table at their ‘Spread the Warmth’ food and warm clothing drive held Dec. 3 in the Zia Credit Union parking lot. Photo by Sandy Tobin

By LINDA HULL
Vice President
Rotary Club of Los Alamos

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Members of the Los Alamos High School Interact Club, the youth service organization sponsored by the Rotary Club of Los Alamos, can’t express their gratitude enough for the impressive support the community gave the students’ efforts to collect non-perishable food and warm clothing during their Dec. 3 “Spread the Warmth” drive.

Despite overcast skies and chilly temperatures, more than 15 Interactors volunteered their time to welcome local residents to Zia Credit Union where bags and boxes of food and warm clothing were gratefully gathered for The Food Depot in Santa Fe and Lutheran Family Services of Albuquerque. 

The food will be distributed by The Food Depot, northern New Mexico’s food bank, to food pantries in Northern New Mexico, including our LA Cares; the clothing will benefit refugees and asylum-seekers, unfamiliar with our colder climate, through the outreach of Lutheran Family Services in Albuquerque.

Interactors also raised $650 through cash donations and the sale of particularly delicious homemade baked goods, including chocolate cakes, chocolate chip cookies, shortbread cookies, biscochitos and extravagant cupcakes.  As the sun set and the temperature dropped, hot chocolate was a hot commodity during the Holiday Lights Parade.

The $650 will be given to The Food Depot to help alleviate the relentless need to feed hundreds of northern New Mexico’s most vulnerable individuals and families.

Special thanks go to Rotarian Laura Loy of Zia Credit Union for use of the bank’s parking lot and to Dance Arts Los Alamos (DALA), who teamed with Interactors by placing collection boxes in the lobby of Smith Auditorium during the organization’s three performances of Sugar Plum on the Hill.

Many thanks also go to Rotarians Sandy Tobin, Jim O’Donnell, Tim Bullock and President Alison Pannell who worked shifts alongside the Interactors.

Generous donations of food and warm clothing had arrived by mid-afternoon during Interact’s Dec. 3 Spread the Warmth drive. Photos by Sandy Tobin 

By the end of the day, Interact’s Dec. 3 Spread the Warmth food and clothing drive filled much of one Interactor’s family garage. Photos by Sandy Tobin