The Rotary theme for May is Youth Service. Our district has a long history of empowering youth through Interact, Rotaract, RYLA and Youth Exchange. Our Interact members usually assist with Rotary club projects and get to see adults serving in many ways. The RYLA experience is an amazing weekend of leadership activities. If you have had the pleasure of taking students on Friday and then picking them up on Sunday you immediately see the difference the weekend made. They are a little apprehensive going and can’t stop talking on the way home! Rotaract allows them to become a Rotarian at an early adult age and hopefully continue throughout their lives. We have started Youth Exchange back since COVID and now have both outbound and inbound students in our district.
Many years ago, my son was a Rotary exchange student to Germany and we hosted a student from Germany. What a fantastic experience it was for all of us. Our district also hosts a Four-Way Test speech contest as another event that gives a form of leadership to students. I encourage clubs that don’t participate in any of these character-building clubs and leadership events to get involved in at least one of them. These youth are our future!
We are nearing the end of our Rotary year. Please consider a gift to the foundation to help us “Finish the Year Strong.” If you are near the next level in your Paul Harris Fellow now is the time to make the donation to get there!
Thank you for all you do for Rotary! Remember our vision statement.
Together we see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change across the globe in our communities and in ourselves!
