Teens share RYLA experience with Rotary
The Portage Rotary Club sent two PCI students Madison DeLong and Shelby Page to the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) Camp in 2011. The girls shared their experience with the club at Tuesday’s meeting.
The week long advanced program camp was held at the Anglican Church Camp at Clear Lake, Man. in August of 2011.
Shelby Page is in grade 11 at PCI while Madison DeLong is in grade 12. Both are involved with the social justice group at PCI, and with Peer Helpers. DeLong is also the secretary on student council.
Over all the girls said RYLA was an incredible experience that they are very thankful for.
“It was an incredible week, we learned so much and we had so much fun. You really feel the presence of Rotary there, the good will ambassadorship,” said DeLong.
“It was basically a leadership camp, we learned lots of cool leadership skills and things to be a better leader. We also learned to be open minded towards other people’s opinions,” said Page.
Campers from Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario did many different activities where they were split into groups of seven with a leader.
Daily sessions included activities such as an opinion spectrum activity, goal setting and evaluation, and what a leader should look like. One such team challenge involved everyone in the group on the ground, lifting up a bucket full of water with their feet and having to hold it there.
“It turns out we were all so good at team work that they actually had to make us lift the bucket up and down.” DeLong
“No one would stop even though our calves were killing us,” Page added.
DeLong and Page really felt that they established life long connections at the camp, where campers were all able to bond over their leadership roles.
“It was really a confidence booster because…a lot of teens don’t like to take that responsibility on they would rather go out and do things with their friends instead of doing these important things. We kind of felt more confident because we knew there were other teens out there, it wasn’t just us carrying the weight of being good leaders,” said DeLong.
The girls were particularly inspired by a speaker who taught them about the Shelter Box program, an international disaster relief charity which is widely supported by Rotary clubs around the world. They would like to see the PCI social justice group get involved with the program.
“Not only did RYLA help me see the potential in myself and help me harness it but the activities and time spent together showed me how there’s still so many motivated people in the world. It made me want to get involved,” said DeLong.
RYLA also helped the girls with future plans after graduation: Page wants to teach English as a second language overseas while DeLong would like to travel and do more humanitarian work.
“It definitely let me know I want to travel more and do more humanitarian work. I try to do humanitarian work in the community but I think there’s a huge need outside of that so it just got me really interested in doing more of that,” said DeLong.
Story courtesy Robin Dudgeon and Portage Daily Graphic