Mt.A’s Rotaract Club works on joining the University and local communities
The Mt.A Rotaract Club, a youth branch of the Rotary International Foundation, has been busy in their mission to serve the community this school year. Third-year student Tovah McGrath, co-president of the club alongside second-year peer Ava Horwood, described to The Argosy the many events which transpired this past semester.
The club had been around for a long time, always working in close contact with the Sackville Rotary Club, which has operated for over 90 years. Mt.A’s branch ended temporarily in post-COVID in 2022, as their purpose is community-based and difficult to perform virtually. In 2024, then-graduate student Lindsay Jackson restarted the club with entirely new members, and began building a lasting structure for the future of the team. This year, commerce student Tovah McGrath and philosophy, politics, and economics student Ava Horwood took over as co-presidents. Working with the presidents include an executive team of six dedicated peers and around 30 general members from the student body, with many opportunities for other students to get involved.
Rotaract clubs around the world focus on service in their communities and taking action for challenges that need addressing. For Mt.A, McGrath outlines the goal as “bridging the gap between the Sackville community and Mt.A students.” Connections with the Sackville Rotary Club help this mission, as the students and the rotary work together to organize and carry out events. A couple of recent events involving collaboration between students and rotary members included serving fresh corn at Sackville’s annual corn boil to first-year Mt.A students, and handing out chili at the 23rd annual fall fair this past September.
Also this past September, Mt.A’s Rotaract put on a Lego Bingo event to raise money for the services the club provides. The bingo game took place on Mt.A’s campus and garnered a large crowd eager for the chance to win a Lego set. McGrath says the event was “so overly successful that we kept running out of bingo cards and someone from [the] executive team would have to run to print more.”
In October, Mt.A rotaract attended a Rotary P.E.I. conference in Charlottetown, P.E.I., offering an opportunity to meet with other members of the Rotary. It was a chance for club members to represent their university and “youth who, like Rotary members, [have] the aspirations to do good for the world,” says McGrath.
Mt.A Rotaract put on many other events in just this past semester, which covers September to December. The club gave out cookies to students during the stressful midterms season to promote good mental health, and treat bags at Halloween to hand out. They have partnered with many other societies at Mt.A, including the Environmental Cleanup Society for a clean-up day to pick up litter around Sackville. They also partnered with the Wellness Centre to offer products for safe sexual health and to help promote flu shot opportunities.
As December rolls around, Rotaract is busy as ever. They are now wrapping up their food drive, which made cultural food dish baskets for international students and students unable to go to their homes for the holidays. Rotaract is also making holiday cards for local residents at Drew Nursing Home, to help promote the holiday spirit.
As the semester ends, Rotaract is still hard at work serving their community, and they will be resuming this work in the New Year. The club continues their mission to serve their community and bring students and local residents together, so keep an eye out for future Rotaract events in Sackville!