Stan took the time to tell us a little bit about what Ryla is about and to introduce the 4 RYLA students in attendance.
Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) is an intensive leadership experience organized by Rotary clubs and districts where you develop your skills as a leader while having fun and making connections. RYLA events are organized locally by Rotary clubs and districts for participants ages 14-30. Depending on community needs, RYLA may take the form of a one-day seminar, a three-day retreat, or a weeklong camp. Typically, events last 3-10 days and include presentations, activities, and workshops covering a variety of topics.
Elizabeth Haynes was the first student to speak about her experience. She attended RYLA because she wanted to better herself as a stronger leader. Each day the students were there was a different theme. The four themes each touched on a different typic; personal goals, team goals, community goals, and global goals. She remembers on her first day when they covered personal goals, the speaker was a hypnotist Doug O'Brien. The challenge was to over come fears and be able to break a block of wood. This was a personal challenge for her but by the end of the event she was able to break through her fear and break the block of wood!
Amanda Felton spoke about her experience next. She stated that she learned a lot including about Relay for Life. The weekend she was there, she was there with 99 other people. They all tried to use any possible skills they had in order to line up alphabetically without speaking to each other. As one can imagine this took a while but working together they were able to accomplish it. They all went through exercises all weekend to learn how to work together. The goal was to learn how to lift each other because in life we all need to lean on others to get through things. She stated that all 99 are still in touch today and Rotary will forever be a part of her life!
Esther Virgil was our next presenter and she stated that she was nervous to attend RYLA because is not a very outgoing person. She was nervous meeting so many new people and she was not sure if she was going to be able to enjoy the event. She had a small group of friends when they arrived there and their nicknames was "Blue Eggs," which was an inside joke and she really felt that she was not going to be able to break her barriers. There were a series of circuits (a metaphor which stood for to work together as a team) and trust falls. She was afraid of heights and she was not sure if she would be able to climb up a wall and then trust people she barely knew to catch her on her fall. By the end of the weekend she allowed herself to do just that!
Vishva Bhatt was our last presenter and her experience was full of life experiences. She clearly remembers a game they played, Quagmire. They were broken up into teams and they had to find a way to get across to an island. The team leaders would go first and everyone would follow and the first team that completely made it over to the island would win! At first it was very loud and chaotic. One hour later nothing was being accomplished! They figured that there was no clear winner. All the teams had to work together to get everyone over to the island with no clear winner. Some people still resisted and things kept falling apart until EVERYONE got on the same page. Her team was the last one to completely make it over to the island BUT everyone realized that everyone needs to work together using their strengths for the success of the whole community. This is something that she learned and will remember to use the rest of her life! She remember being there for Charice's last meeting before she went back home this summer and this was an example of everyone working together for the greater cause.
We also had American Cancer Society come and thank us for the generous donation we made earlier in the year!
They also were able to give us a break down of how they were able to use the $10,000 that we donated to them. The breakdown went as follow us:
-$5,000: provided 10 cancer patients and their caregivers with 10 nights of free lodging at Hope Lodge
-$2,000: provided 12 patients with a trained navigator to guide them through treatment by the Patient Navigator Program.
-$1,400: provided 72 people 24/7 access to information and support via phone and online chats through our National Cancer Information Center.
-$500: provided 50 free rides to and from treatment by our Road to Recovery program
-$600: provided 1 on 1 support from a survivor for 6 breast cancer patients
-$500: provided access to confidence building work shop for 5 female cancer patients by Reach to Recovery program
With this donation we were able to help so many people and touch so many different lives. The American Cancer society was so thankful for this help and they presented the club with a nice plaque that can be seen below!