RYLA 2009 Held At Kangaroobie

Two successful RYLA applicants, Libby Nugent and Lauren Kirkham were selected by the Rotary Club of Wendouree Breakfast to participate at RYLA 2009 held at Kangaroobie from Monday 13th April - Saturday 18th April, 2009.

RYLA stands for Rotarian Youth Leadership Awards. But it goes much further than a group of 30 people going to a far away camp for 6 days.

After participating at RYLA, Libby and Lauren returned to the Rotary Club of Wendouree Breakfast to share their experience with club members and the following is what Lauren had to say.

For me personally, it was an entirely different challenge. The morning of the trip down to Kangaroobie where the RYLA camp was held, I was struck down with a severe cold. I completely lost my voice and my nostrils caused me intense pain. I feel so sorry for the rest of the camp – who managed to become sick the following week.

I can try and explain RYLA as best I can, but unless you’ve actually experienced it, you will have no idea how much of an impact it had on those who participated. We had all sorts of people attend the event - loud, vivacious people and quiet people with little self esteem – however we all came together and many friendships were created.

The days were long and often confrontational. Everything was discussed, from leadership and how to be a leader in everyday society, through to goal setting and self esteem. Certain things benefited certain people more than others. But all of the discussions and activities which were held during the week were incredibly lifting and brought the group that much closer.

I suppose to a casual observer, the whole experience is the same as a primary school camp. You get up early; have breakfast, some discussions, lunch, then some physical activities and then reflection time before dinner and then some fun games. My favourite activity we did was what we most liked about someone, where a small group of us went around and gave positive feedback to each person. It was nice to see the side of me that people found particularly endearing.

For me, as a mostly self-confident person I found it truly heart warming to watch those people who were particularly insecure within themselves, come out of their shells and go from barely talking to making friends left, right and centre. That really showed me exactly how

The whole experience of RYLA is something you can’t really begin to discuss or even imagine. It turned people with little self-confidence into people who actually respected themselves. It gave those with little or no direction and idea as to what they goals they can set themselves and how to stick to it.

I would highly recommend it to anyone up until the age of 25. Because in all honesty, who of us really have any idea exactly what is going to happen in the next year or even decade?