RYLA Students Present to Rotary

Four Dayton High School Interact students and their sponsor were the program for the Dayton Rotary Club. Interact clubs bring together high school students to develop leadership skills while discovering the power of ‘Service Above Self’ and is associated with Rotary International. Some of the benefits of this organization is to connect with leaders in the community, discover new cultures, learn about becoming a leader and to have fun and make new friends.

These students were selected to go to RYLA Camp this past January. RYLA is a Rotary Youth Leadership Award program and was held at Pineywoods Baptist Encampment, Woodlake, Texas. The various Rotary Clubs sponsor high school Juniors with a scholarship to attend RYLA. It is a weekend long camp where they connect with other juniors from other schools through experiential learning activities. The camp also transforms youth perspectives through exposure to the Rotary 4-Way Test and ethical standards promoted by Rotarians. Rotary volunteers serve at the RYLA camp through various activities including ropes course, team building, Rotary History, activity guides, and much more.

The four DHS RYLA students are Katherine Herrera, Alyssa Peterson, Isaac Ramos and Leland Johnson. Each RYLA student presented pictures and various activities that happened during the RYLA camp. Katherine, Alyssa and Isaac were grateful and thanked the Rotary Club for their sponsorships. They took turns talking about meeting others, making new friends,the 24- hr. snacks, trust activities, chants, and learning more about the Rotary Club. Leland Johnson was not present at the Rotary meeting due to competing at the State BPA meet. However, sponsor, Ms. Bodiford, presented to the Rotarians a video of Leland talking about his experience at RYLA. “Leland has been selected and asked to return next year to RYLA and be a counselor. I am very proud of him and all of the other students. They did not really know what to expect and were a little apprehensive until they got there. All of them have talked non-stop about how they will carry this experience throughout their lives. Thank you Dayton Rotary Club for this opportunity!”