Youth Committee Update...
Rotaract
Getting up every Wednesday for a 7:00am meeting is not easy, but there are a few who do it all again on Thursday to support our Rotaract Club. For those of you who haven’t been to one of their meetings I highly recommend it. We have a great group of young people who continue to amaze me with their intelligence, energy, and team spirit. They not only have their own projects, but have also played key roles in many of our Sunrise projects as well.
RotaKids
After a tireless hunt, Marilyn has finally pinned down a teacher to lead an EarlyAct group at George Town Primary. The establishment of an EarlyAct Club has been one of President Mike’s great hopes for his term and it looks like we may get it done before the year is out.
At Risk Youth
Most of you attended our “Jerk Chicken Think Tank” back in September. Many ideas were thrown around that day, but the most important thing to come out of it I believe is that we now have regular contact with both the at-risk coordinator for the Education Ministry (Michael Myles, who was also at the think tank) and with the Youth Department (headed by Katherine Whittaker, who was guest speaker at our Sept 1st meeting).
No programs have developed for physical participation by Rotarians, but we have agreed to sponsor a training course for government youth workers, which will be held at UCCI in the coming months. As one person has reminded me: sometimes we as Rotarians have to remember our strengths and weaknesses and one of our strengths is certainly fundraising! We have raised the money and now we’re putting it to smart and effective use by providing training for professional youth workers, rather than trying to do it all ourselves.
In the meantime, if you’re looking for a hands-on project working with kids in need, please support the Literacy Committee’s reading programs! They can always use more adult readers and from everything I’ve been told by educators, social workers, and youth workers, literacy is the number one indicator of future success. It may not seem like much, but if we can help a few kids improve their reading skills we’ll actually be doing a great service to the cause of at risk youth.
Vocational Camp
Another area where we spent our money wisely and let the pros do the work. This is a fantastic program which we’ve supported for at least three years now. Some of you got to be judges for the culinary camp portion and I know that was an enjoyable task.
Obesity Task Force
Plant a seed and watch it grow into an impressive tree! Last year’s Board agreed to provide initial funding for this project, when nobody was sure if it would succeed. Succeed it has! They now have corporate funding, government funding, and have already convinced the Government to overhaul school cafeteria menus. A great project, which I hope we will continue to support in the coming years.
RYLA
We sent two Rotaractors to the Rotary Youth Leadership event in St Kitts last October. Hopefully you saw their presentation about the trip at our December 1 meeting (the infamous Balderami Clan meeting). We’re already seeing results as those two Rotaractors are now on the Board of Rotaract!
10Ten10 Photo Competition
Great response from the community, great efforts by the sub-committee (headed by PE Andrea), and great photos produced by Cayman’s youth. If you missed the award ceremony at the Spotts Newlands Park, come on out to Art@Governor’s on Feb 5th to see all the winning shots. Please contact Andrea or myself if you can help out that day.
Junior Achievement
The volunteers for J.A. have made a huge commitment of time. Three hours every Tuesday night for weeks on end. But, the reward has been seeing the development of the kids on the team. And some pretty good dinner too!
Thanks again to you all for your efforts. Don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions or comments.
Regards,