South Eastman Rotary is fully sponsoring two youth to attend a leadership development camp

There is an opportunity for youth in the southeast to attend a six-day camp this summer to develop their leadership skills. 

Jo-Anne Dalton, president of South Eastman Rotary, says that last year they had the opportunity to send one student to a fully sponsored leadership development camp at Clear Lake, Manitoba.  

She says it was such a great experience that this year they're opening up the opportunity to two students.  

“So we are looking for nominations for two youth who have demonstrated some kind of leadership ability or interest, and we want to fully sponsor them to go to this leadership camp.” 

The camp focuses on leadership development, topics of interest, and recreational activities.

Some topics explored at the Rotary Youth Leadership Assembly (RYLA) include self-esteem, feelings and managing emotions, healthy relationships, communication skills, problem solving, risk taking, career planning, self-defense, fundraising, and raising awareness.

They have one spot for ages 12 to 14, and one spot for ages 15 to 17. The Junior Week is July 31 to August 5, and the Senior Week is from August 7 to August 12.

Dalton says it's a really great opportunity for youth to get an idea of what it looks like to become a leader in their environment.  

“It follows a hands-on ‘learn by doing’ approach,” she says. “It's really meant to encourage and train our youth to become responsible citizens, develop those leadership skills, and bring those skills back to their community. Because Rotary is all about changing the world through positive action.”

If you want to get involved, you can find South Eastman Rotary on Facebook and Instagram under Rotary Club of South Eastman. 

They have a form you can fill out to nominate youth that fit the criteria. 

Last year, Dalton’s son was the one chosen to attend the camp.

"My son was able to go kind of as a test run, and he had such a great time he actually told me he didn't want us to nominate anybody else this year because he wanted to go again,” she says. “But we really want to open up the opportunity to a different person every year, so we're not going to send him again.” 

She says her son had a lot of fun.

“One of the things they did was a passion project. So they got to, within their camping group, pick a world cause that was important to them and then do a big project on why and how they could fix these problems.”

With files from Kenton Dyck