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KAHULUI - Five Rotaract members - from faraway places, such as Bulgaria and Australia, and ranging in professions from a nanny to an IBM technical consultant - were hosted by the Rotaract Club of Maui Community College earlier this month.

The Maui Outdoor Rotaract Experience (MORE) was the MCC club's first international service project. Rotaract is a Rotary International branch for young and developing professionals from age 18 to 30 who serve their communities by organizing service projects.

The five Rotaract members who were hosted by MCC club members from Aug. 3 to 10 were Chad Horton, a schoolteacher from Australia; Mario Gil Erazo, IBM technical consultant from Costa Rica; Fernanda Sausen, professional nanny from Brazil; Alexander Neev, advertising consultant from Bulgaria; and Lauren Hettenhausen, a college student from Illinois studying early childhood education.

The five were selected by the MCC club based on an application and a questionnaire filled out by the MORE candidates.

In their time here, program participants learned about Hawaiian culture, arts and crafts, and worked in a traditional taro patch at the Noho'ana Farm in Waikapu. They also harvested and pounded kalo, and ate poi.

Other activities included sailing to Lanai, attending a luau and watching "'Ulalena." The group took a trip to Hana for a service cleanup project at Waianapanapa State Park.

MORE is an international project modeled after Alaska's Rustic Alaskan Rotaract Experience (RARE), which MCC Rotaract's immediate past president, Laycie-Ann Tobosa, attended in 2007. The MCC club hoped to establish local and international relationships and leadership development through MORE.

The Rotaract Club of Maui Community College was established in July 2006 with sponsorship from all eight Rotary clubs on Maui. Loretta Lau, an MCC sophomore, is the club president, and Mickey Damerell of the Rotary Club of Maui serves as the club's adviser.

The club is accepting new members and meets on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month in MCC Ka'a'ike, second-floor Room 210.

For more information, see the Web site www.myspace.com/rotaractclubmcc or e-mail lwhlau@hawaii.edu.