RYLA Revisited: Students Recall the 2011 Weekend

The highlight, in Michael's view, was there were no student injuries. RYLA is a 4-day camp, with activities for District 5240 youths scheduled from 7:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. On Friday and Saturday there were six Leadership Training Sessions with many guest speakers.  Everyone meets everyone who attends.  The best speaker made the participants evaluate their friends.

Each participant at our meeting gave their take of the weekend.

Christian Pringle enjoyed all of the speakers.  He said, "The most significant point I learned was if you are going to be somewhere you have to first get through it and don't give up.   Just continue through with your goal."

            Sean Lambert liked the presentation of the bicycle rider who rode from Alaska to South America and set a record.  "He said to reach for the moon but shoot for the stars," Sean recalled.

            Morgan Clark thanked our Club for sponsoring her.  "I learned how valuable your time is, and there is no time to waste," she said. "Time evaluates your time.  Learn to manage your time and time all of your opportunities."

            Amber Domingo shared what a typical day was like. "We didn't have time to do what we want to do.  Got up between 7:30 a.m.and 8 am; breakfast; classes; lunch; activities; classes; dinner; a little free time.  There were games such as lazar tag and there was a rock wall."

            And Nicolas Villareal said, "Thank you.  I learned a lot of stuff and thank you for sponsoring us."

The campers all agreed that there was fun in the cabin experience. Michael had a cabin of 12 boys, and without a lot of time to sleep and get ready, they had to get in and get out!  Nico likes his showers so he needed some encouragement to get out!

There was TeamBuilding consisting of evaluating communication and expressing individual insight. If you were shy there were people who would quiet the classes down so you could be heard. Everyone had to participate and everyone was important, and as an example, a medicine ball was used in a relay race to instill team effort and show how that such an object could be handled and a goal accomplished with the help of everyone involved.

In fact, this year was the fastest any group has ever done on this ball relay course. The ball is considered an egg, and it has to roll across the racers' bodies, but not touch the ground! With 35 kids on each team, and a 30-minute time limit, all were successful.  Some took 26 minutes to finish, and the new record was 13 minutes.  The race facilitator makes you go back to the beginning if you make a mistake. 

The instructors are not all Rotarians.  One of the best classes was diversity and Public Speaking, or how can you persuade, not just give information.  We can always talk, but how can I really get the nerve to talk to everyone? Participants had to sell someone an idea.  In the Diversity class (2 hours with 30 participants plus counselors, co-ed) questions were asked and stories were shared. Each student saw that their problems weren't unique, and that the shared experiences of the entire weekend would not easily be forgotten.