“Rotary has provided to Interactors experiences which have expanded their world view, given them knowledge and inspired them to become altruistic individuals who are motivated to give back.” – Kyle Gomes
 
Highlights from the presentation by Interactor Kyle Gomes, who has travelled to Guiyang, China to document free cleft lip and palate surgeries, Refilwe, South Africa to film a biennial school trip to a small community, and Tagbilaran, the Philippines, to document a free dental hygiene mission. Realizing at an early age that his talent could help tell other people’s stories, the 17-year-old photographer and videographer and President of the Interact Club at Hugh Boyd Secondary in Richmond, has generated a tremendous volume of work closer to home as well. One of Kyle’s photos was voted among the top 50 youth environmental photos in the world, another has appeared in The Rotarian magazine, and photos winning “Gold” at the Photographers Association of Canada BC Region “PHOTOgraphie” competition. Kyle hopes to continue his work in Rotary after his high school career, and one day, become a Rotarian.
 
In recent years the Interact Club at Hugh Boyd Secondary School has twice won the Grand Prize for Rotary International Interact video competition and twice has won runnerup. Kyle regards video as an effective way to not only convey information, but emotion.
 
Kyle has produced videos for various sponsoring Rotary club events such as winter wonderland to decorate city hall and a skate-a-thon.
 
 
A member of the sponsoring Rotary club, Magdalen Leung, invited Kyle, at age 15, to accompany her on a Rotary mission to China to support children in need of cleft palate surgery. Video of China visit for cleft palate surgery for children
 
In the summer of 2015, Kyle was also invited with six other Interactors to join Magdalen Leung on a mission to South Africa, where they refurbished a baby clinic, painted and decorated a preschool and talked to and taught the kids.
 
Kyle says, “It was an eye opening experience and I was able to see the difference in living standards as well as the difference in kids' lives: there were shacks that served has homes, although they had been taken care of, and alcoholism was at a high level -- an experience unknown to me. That really changed the way I regarded living standards that we enjoy here in Canada.”
 
 
 
In March 2016, through a connection made because of the video produced on the trip to China, he made another trip related to the shipment of dental equipment to the Philippines through our District's Rotary Word Help.
 
While trips are an amazing way to learn, experience and grow, my story about work with Rotary is not just limited to international.
 
Kyle’s Interact club of 240 students has run a book drive, a canned food drive and invasive plant species removal around Richmond. The Club is now working on an "Unmarked Graves" project at Mountainview Cemetary where there more than 800 unmarked graves of veterans.
 
Next year Kyle is planning to attend UBC to study sciences, where he expects to become a Rotoractor and eventually become a Rotarian.
 
His experience of involvement in Rotary is not unique. There are so many youth in Rotary who are making immense differences in their communities.
 
"All the trips and experiences I have had with Rotary are different. However, there is one theme that is consistent with all these trips: it's the commitment to the motto that guides Rotarians around the world, to always put service above self. I know, through the opportunities Rotary has provided to its youth, this commitment will be passed down for generations to come. I am excited to be part of it."