District 7210

July 15, 2024

Just this past week, our team had the absolute pleasure of hosting RYLA 2024! From July 7th to 11th, 114 students from across Rotary District 7210 participated in leadership-based activities spanning from team projects to learning from guest speakers who shared various insights about the value of leadership in our communities.

As in previous years, this year’s conference was an immense success from our point of view. However, if there is anything our team has learned from our involvement with RYLA for the past decade, what matters most when measuring the success of a year’s conference is not our point of view but rather that of the students in attendance.

To this end, I have included photos, videos, links, and quotes to help share the magic with you!

Click here for a link to this year's RYLA website. The Media group conferees created this website entirely! They spent their group project time designing it, gathering photos, and conducting interviews.

In the photos below, you will find the following:

Our game of Captain's Coming which involves conferees carefully listening to directions and working together to assume the poses our "Captain" calls out. It's a little bit like "Simon Says."
A special moment from our Talent Show when everyone in the audience turned on their flashlights to support a conferee singing on stage.
A group hug from our Junior Counselors on stage (they were all conferees you sponsored last year!).
Another special moment during our RYLA dance when everyone spread out in a big circle, holding hands.
Our Engineering group, with the kites and plane they built celebrating after their demonstration.
Our Chorus group giving final bows after their amazing group performance.
Conferees on stage presenting during our activity Invention Convention. In this activity, conferees are put into groups and given a bag of random supplies. They must work together to invent something with those supplies and present their invention on stage in a skit.
Our amazing RYLA staff!

A special story to share: Often, our Talent Show is the first time these students feel confident enough to get on stage and share their talents. One conferee, for example, started the show with Yoyo tricks but left the stage after making a mistake. At the show's end, we opened the stage to anyone who wanted to sign up at the last minute. That young man returned to finish his trick and shared that he initially felt like crying after his mistake, but the support from the crowd made him feel loved and gave him the confidence to come back on stage!

There are so many more stories and special moments, so I encourage you to reconnect with your sponsored students following their time at RYLA to learn more about all of the benefits you have offered to these students by choosing to sponsor them to attend RYLA 2024! Should you need their contact information, I am happy to provide it.

Please also look for thank-you notes from the students your club sponsored! These notes were written during our Rotary Appreciation activity. They will be mailed to the RYLA Chairs at the addresses submitted previously.

Finally, as always, our team would like to offer our most sincere “thank you” for supporting the District 7210 RYLA program. Thank you for sponsoring students to attend RYLA and for the countless hours that you put into student applications, interviews, selection, and timely follow-up when our team requests your assistance. We so appreciate your support year after year, and are honored to serve on the District 7210 RYLA Committee. Again, many thanks for supporting RYLA 2024; we look forward to working with you for RYLA 2025!

Best,

Sarah and the whole RYLA Team