Our program today was conducted by our RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) participants and as always, it was a wonderful opportunity to watch our young people run the meeting and share their experiences at RYLA.  The meeting opened with the flag salute and national anthem led by the Master of Ceremonies, Timothy Ro.  Rudy led us in a song (If you’re happy and you know it) which was followed with an invocation by Allie Hisey.  Seth Bartman did the introductions and then it was back to Timothy Ro for Birthdays and Anniversaries.  Jacky Chan (claiming no relation to the actor of the same name) did the announcements.

For the main part of the program the kids described the events and activities that took place on their RYLA weekend.  (Note: it is an important part of the RYLA camp experience that the participants not know what will happen in advance.  With this in mind, we will not report any of the specifics here).  The activities are carefully designed to challenge the participants in various facets of leadership and communication.  The presenters were Alexis, Simone, Sharon, Vanessa, Jennifer, Kuan, and Marshall.  They clearly had a great time and were very excited about the things they had experienced.  There was no question that they were moved by some of the activities as shown by a few of their comments:

“It took a lot of teamwork and understanding”

“Amazing but terrifying”

“It was so raw!”

The Plenary Session Speakers also had a memorable impact:

Kimberly Kelly (Teach America Project) – presented by Simone – told her story of overcoming tremendous adversity and of giving back to the community.

Bruce Quinn (Life Choices) – presented by Rohan – told his story of making bad choices and how that determines your path in life.

Napoleon (Football Player) – presented by Allie – told his story of perseverance in coming back from a devastating injury.

In closing, they enthusiastically offered their individual comments about the weekend.  “The food was the bomb.”  “The facilities were the best!” “The most important thing I took from RYLA was the friendships.” “I found a new best friend – he was like a white version of me.”