LAHS Interact Club hosts three-day bake sale for service projects

Los Alamos High School’s Rotary Interact Club is turning the sidewalk in front of the Los Alamos YMCA Teen Center into a three-day fundraiser, with baked goods on sale to support service projects in town and beyond. Every cookie, brownie and cupcake bought at 475 20th Street goes back into the club’s community work.

The sale runs Thursday and Friday from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., giving families a chance to stop by after school, after work or during the weekend. The location puts the students right in the center of town, in front of the Teen Center at 475 20th Street, Los Alamos, NM 87544.

The Interact Club is part of Rotary International’s youth program for ages 12 to 18, and its focus is service as much as leadership. Rotary describes Interact clubs as a way for young people to develop leadership skills through hands-on projects, and in Los Alamos that means students are learning how to organize a public fundraiser while raising money for broader civic work.

Proceeds from the bake sale will support the club’s local and international community service initiatives. That mission fits the setting. The Los Alamos YMCA Teen Center says it operates in the historic Community Building in the center of town, with more than 10,000 square feet of program space, and it is operationally funded by Los Alamos County and administered by The Family YMCA. The center’s mission is to strengthen the self-efficacy and resiliency of community youth through educational support and positive youth development programs.

The fundraiser also follows a pattern for the Los Alamos High School Rotary Interact Club. In 2021, a bake sale and car wash raised more than $1,000 for ShelterBox relief efforts, showing that small student-led events can produce real money for service work. The Rotary Club of Los Alamos, which says it has more than 40 Rotarians working on community and global causes, backs that effort again this week as students connect a simple snack sale to projects with reach far beyond 20th Street.