By: Aida Lashinsky, Reporter

Someone who’s definitely paying it forward this month is Seminole High School’s Interact Club. In honor of anti-bullying week, club members got together and created hundreds of inspirational sticky notes that were placed around campus to improve student’s self-esteem.

The notes were placed inside the girls bathrooms in Renegade and Tribe as well as on two large mirrors that were placed in the cafeteria. They were placed on mirrors to represent how critical teenagers can sometimes be of themselves as they stare in the mirror.

Interact club sponsor Mrs. Aliya Lyons says,“We live in a world [with] a lot of social media and in that social media there’s a lot of things that we see others in the way that others want to be portrayed. There’s research done that because of social media’s appearance of people being happy, a lot of us actually look at social media and think, well I’m not that happy with myself.  Or I’m not that pretty. I don’t have that kind of vacation or that kind of bathing suit or whatever it might be. And so it actually is a detriment to young people’s self image. So I’m hoping that this might touch somebody’s outlook just for a day or for an hour.”

The Interact students do receive volunteer hours for participating in the event but the main point is to hopefully brighten someone’s day. The students created sticky note after sticky note, writing things like, “You are needed” and “One step at a time.”

“We’re just really trying to make people’s day. So if they’re feeling down [we’re] just trying to build them up,” says sophomore Olivia Ellis.

Lyons hopes the positive message of this event will inspire others to do the same.

“I know that bullying is something that is important and is an issue but it’s not something that’s going to be solved overnight. But little things, little acts of kindness, will help it. I love positive energy. I feel like it’s something like pay it forward. When you see something good happening or something good happens to you then you kind of pay it forward and do something good for someone else,” says Lyons.

The whole premise of the Interact club is to take a pay it forward approach, and to help the community. They also partake in events for tutoring elementary school students, making breakfast for people who need it, cleaning up the school campus, and much more. Lyons says that although she is the sponsor for the club, it is the students that make everything possible throughout each month. Caroline Dibble is a sophomore who took part in the anti-bullying event. “Sometimes seeing an inspirational quote can really just pick up your day,” she says.

Interact club hopes that students will take a positive message from the event and also be inspired to reach out and help those who need it.

“You as teenagers can do so much. So much,” says Lyons. “Even if it’s just once a month. And you can see the trickle down effects of whatever you do.”