The Interact club is trying to help eradicate polio, a crippling disease of the nervous system, in the only four countries it still exists in: Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Kenya.

The club is raising $2,000 for 3,333 vaccines during the week of April 11 through April 16 by maintaining four donation jars—one for each class—in the Starkville High School cafeteria during lunch. The club will also accept private donations.

“Each vaccine is about 60 cents,” Interact president and junior Brian Xu said. “$2,000 means roughly $1.80 per student—enough for three vaccines. Polio used to be a huge global problem. But now, it’s cool to think that every one person here could equal three lives changed.”

Interact club is a youth subdivision of the much larger Rotary International, a charity that, with the help of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, the World Health Organization, UNICEF and the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, has worked to end polio since 1988.

“I feel like a lot of times, especially in service clubs, that outreach is really limited to where we are,” sophomore Jordan Cohen said. “Being a part of this organization has helped people realize that they can help people around the world and not just people around them. I get the satisfaction of knowing that I’ve dramatically improved the quality of their lives.”

The reward for meeting the $2,000 will be a no-dress code day. However, if the goal is not met, then the class that donated the most money will be able to wear jeans for a day.

“I don’t know about everybody,” Xu said, “but most people hate wearing khaki, gray, white and black every day. You look in the cafeteria, and it’s a little depressing. Of course, I have to say the juniors [will donate most], because I have to have confidence in my people. And it’s not that hard of a goal.”

Several posters and flyers around the school will advertise the fundraiser. When the jars are out, they will bear small facts about polio, similar to, “Many children are infected in the first year of life. Cases may show little-to-no symptoms, but may result in Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP), which can lead to permanent crippling of limbs and the respiratory system.”

Interact is currently finding organzations to get the money through and ways for donors to make tax-deductible donations.