Several Weyburn students had amazing experiences this past summer as they took part in RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Assembly) at Clear Lake, Man., and they shared some of those experiences with the Rotary Club on Thursday evening.
Two older students, Brayden King and Josh Zackrisson, spoke about their camp first, then a large group of students from younger grades gave a presentation, including Emma Bitz, Mackenzie Kot, Emma Wiens and Megan Ebel. Two students who also went to RYLA, Tyra Sandiford and Morgan King, were unable to be at the presentation to the Rotarians.
The club was also introduced to a candidate to be Weyburn’s next out-bound exchange student next year, Hannah Bitz, the older sister of Emma.
In the first presentation, Brayden noted this was his second year to attend RYLA and Josh’s first time, and he admitted everyone who was returning to the youth leadership camp was emotional and crying as they hugged each other upon arrival.
“This was my first time there, and everybody was so welcoming,” said Josh.
“It’s pretty crazy that I have friends from Manitoba over to Ontario,” added Brayden, who described some of the activities they did, such as a talking circle around a campfire.
Josh explained that everyone was put into teams on the first day, and the teams competed against each other in various activities throughout the course of the week, including making a music video together.
“It’s really cool, because you get even closer with your team-mates than you do with the others at camp,” said Brayden. “My favourite challenge was the night challenge, which was a night scavenger hunt. … The first team to get all the clues gets to go back to bed.”
The campers were roused in the middle of the night to do this challenge, he explained.
Josh noted there were many fun activities such as ping pong, football, dancing, singing and making music videos.
The group of girls also spoke about their experience at the camp. “It was a great experience,” said Emma Wiens, who also mentioned the night challenge as a favourite activity that they took part in. She noted the final team challenge “required team work and leadership” to complete it.
“RYLA was the highlight of my summer,” said Emma Bitz, noting she enjoyed the sharing circle where each day the counsellors would pick a topic, and sometimes the topics were tough ones to talk about, such as about bullying.
“As leaders we should be understanding and accepting of each person,” she said. “We got to know ourselves and others really well.”
Megan spoke about the guest speakers who came in to talk to them, such as one who explained about the Shelterbox program that helps people in disaster zones, another who spoke about the student exchange program and a speaker talked about the wildlife federation.
“RYLA was an amazing experience for all of us,” said Mackenzie, who noted she always got to sit with someone new at meal-times, and was able to get to know many at the camp that way. She also noted that on the final night, there were lots of tears shed at the last campfire, as each person was able to share something special they learned, tossing a handful of flour on the fire as they were done.
“We had an amazing time and would love to go again,” she said.
“It was my personal highlight of the summer, and we’ll remember it forever. We made a lot of memories,” added Emma Bitz.
