During August 2018, Arrowhead started the Warhawk Interact club. Warhawk Interact is a volunteering group in which students support and create events that help other people. Members of the Lake Country Rotary Club created Warhawk Interact with Warhawk Interact advisor Kevin Lewandowski and Activities Director Ryan Mangen.

Lewandowski, school psychologist and Warhawk Interact advisor said, “We will have our new 2020-2021 roster by the start of October.”

Lewandowski said, “We started accepting registration forms after the start of the school year. Warhawk Interact includes different activities to help other people. We meet on the second Tuesday of each month before and after school traditionally in the Junior Study Hall Room and this year we are recording our meetings and sending them out to members.” 

He says they host two meetings so people can try to pick whichever one works best for their schedule.  

Lewandowski said, “More recently, our group has had to be flexible with the changes that came from COVID-19.” 

This year, there were different activities for the Warhawk Interact Club. 

Lewandowski, said, “Warhawk Interact was created because Arrowhead has a long history of involved students and they were missing a group that solely focused on giving back to others.” Lewandowski says “In the spring, we had to change our expectations for our members and so far this fall, things look very different. We do not have access to the same volunteering opportunities as in the past and we aren’t able to host our full-group meetings in person.”

Lewandowski said, “We have fewer activities because of COVID but some of our new activities include creating masks for those in need, helping school staff with classroom tasks, creating a video library of children’s stories and making blankets for local animal shelters.”

Lewandowski said, “Warhawk Interact experienced a dramatic shift two years ago when we switched from Key Club to Warhawk Interact. This allowed us more independence and freedom to use our funds the way our members wanted to. Since then we are able to host more of our own events and members vote each month on what non-profit organization we should make a donation to. 

Lewandowski says “In the spring, we had to change our expectations for our members and so far this fall, things look very different. We do not have access to the same volunteering opportunities as in the past and we aren’t able to host our full-group meetings in person.”

He says they have two different types of meetings and they have their full group meetings where the board talks to the members information about upcoming events, looking back at past events and club reminders. Then they hold their board meetings two times a month and they then make decisions about how the club is run and what events they want to go about.

Nathan Goodreau, a junior, said that He is not part of Warhawk Interact and probably will not join Warhawk Interact. 

Lewandowski says that he held meetings with the Arrowhead Activities Office and the local Rotary Club where they were able to talk about how the club would be run and the benefits of giving back to others.

Lewandowski  says, “The primary challenge  that we are expecting this year is how to help people in safe ways. Different organizations are reluctant  to host bigger events because of COVID and our members traditionally help to support a number of these throughout different communities. Since there are fewer of these events for us to help with, we are mostly hosting our own events and the decrease in opportunities can make it harder for students to get involved.”

Lewandowski says, “Warhawk Interact is adapting to what a year looks like with significantly fewer community events and how we can still help others as much as possible. We understand how busy teachers are and wanted to offer up our services however we can. Our students appreciate what teachers are being asked to do.”