York, Clover students team up for service during rivalry week

Bonnie Wyatt and other members of the Clover High Interact Club spent two hours Wednesday sorting clothing for needy families in York.

A day later, members of a new Interact Club at York Comprehensive High sorted food donations at the Clover Area Assistance Center.

York’s Cougars and Clover’s Blue Eagles, longtime athletic rivals, faced each other on the basketball court Thursday. But Wyatt said students have a more important connection than their athletic competition.

“Working together brings us back to our common thread, and that’s where we’re from,” said Wyatt, president of the Clover club. “We should remember that we’re friends, and that we’re here together.”

Jimmy Roach, a Clover High teacher and sponsor of that Interact club, came up with the idea of the clubs teaming up on a service project for both communities during the week of the boys’ and girls’ basketball rivalry games.

Roach said the aim of the project, which included participation from the principals of both high schools, was to “channel the energy and spirit that goes with the rivalry into something positive.”

The idea was for students to help out in another community. Roach said some members of both high school groups showed up to help at both locations.

Interact Club is a youth community service organization sponsored by Rotary Clubs.

Clarklyn George, a York student who helped sort canned food by date at the Clover center, said her reason for pitching in was simple.

“It’s just the right thing to do,” she said.

Hannah Bryant, a YCHS teacher and a sponsor of the new Interact Club, said the York and Clover partnership was her group’s first project.

But Roach said he hopes it won’t be the last.

“We were talking, and this has been such a success that we thought we should do something during football,” Roach said. One idea was for the two groups to do trash pickup along Lincoln Road, which runs through both school districts, and meet at the district line, he said.

“The rivalry is great, and we ought to have a rivalry, but we want to keep it clean,” Roach said. “Clover and York both have good kids, and any time we can do something together, it’s good for both kids.”

Bryant said it’s good for the students to think beyond an athletic rivalry. “It doesn’t matter where you’re from,” she said, “as long as you help somebody.”

York Comprehensive High School Principal Chris Black, who volunteered at the Clover Area Assistance Center, said he had a good time getting to know the Clover students.

“I hope they get a little interaction between each other,” Black said about the two clubs. “It was neat to get to see what these guys are doing.”

Clover High Principal Rod Ruth, a former York Middle principal, spent his time bagging clothes with some of the York students at Tender Hearts.

“We spend energy as a part of the high school experience battling each other for fun,” Ruth said. “But it’s important to remember what’s important.”

This story was originally published January 21, 2016 at 7:50 PM with the headline "York, Clover students team up for service during rivalry week."