I would like to invite your Rotary Club to participate in the District 7930 2017 RYLA program.  If you have already participated, you know that this is a fabulous program for high school students to develop leadership skills.  If you are not familiar with RYLA, please indulge me and let me tell you about RYLA.

 

High School students from schools all over our district are invited to a weekend at Camp Rotary in Boxford.  We can accept 80 students and the program is almost always a sell-out with a waiting list. 

 

Students arrive on Friday afternoon.  They sign in, find their cabin, stow their gear and jump immediately into the program.  From 4pm Friday afternoon until 4pm Sunday afternoon, the only chance anyone in RYLA gets to breathe is at meal times and when you crawl into bed and pass out from pure exhaustion.  Every other minute is packed with a variety of leadership activities.

 

The activities are amazing.  Some are physical, some intellectual, some emotional-- all take a team to complete.  By the time a "Family" has completed a couple tasks, they are bonding into an amazing team.  As a Rotarian, I mostly observe.  It's amazing to watch the Family transform into a team and to see the growth of each student in my Family.

 

Sunday afternoon comes too soon and we all collect emails, phone numbers, and Facebook info.  We hug a million times, take a million pictures, and return to real life. 

 

About four months later, the students are invited to participate again in the coming year's RYLA program as Student Facilitators.  Students who accept this challenge attend several training sessions through the fall and winter.  When RYLA begins again the following spring, these students do most of the work.  Rotarians and other adults are there—but the program is really run by the student facilitators.

 

Surveys completed by students include comments such as "life changing", "best leadership camp I've been to", "I can apply this to my life right now", etc.

 

 

Each Rotary Club may send up to five students. The cost to the Rotary Club is $150 per student. Applications are accepted on a first-come(paid)/first-accepted basic. Once 80 students have been accepted, a waiting list will be started.  Students who are accepted will be notified and given further instructions.  When a student is placed on the waiting list, the sponsoring Rotary club will be notified.

 

A sponsoring Rotary Club will be expected to followup with students prior to RYLA to make sure they are all set and ready to go.  If the student needs a ride to and from Camp Rotary, the Club will be responsible for making the arrangements for transportation.  Students may not drive themselves-- parking is limited and there isn't space for student vehicles.

 

After RYLA, sponsoring Rotary Clubs are encouraged to followup with their students and to invite them to speak about their experience at a club meeting.

 

For more information about RYLA, please feel free to contact any of the following Rotarians-- all have several years of RYLA experience:

 

     

Pictures shown throughout this email are from the 2016 RYLA.