Our Rotary Club will send up to 10 students each from South Portland and Cape Elizabeth high schools to leadership camp at Camp Hinds in Raymond, Maine. All expenses are paid - primarily from the money we make at our annual Christmas Tree and Wreath Sale in Mill Creek Park.
The students will join approximately 144 students who have just completed their sophomore year at high schools throughout southern Maine and seacoast New Hampshire.
The Rotary Youth Leadership Award program (RYLA) is a wonderful program. Students and parents alike rave about it. It is perfect both for students who want to hone their leadership skills and for students who would like to discover and develop new leadership skills. Parents are invited to dinner one of the nights.
Participants are assigned to groups of 12 (none from their own high school) with whom they engage in team building activities, solve problems, build confidence, and have the sorts of in-person interactions and discussions with their peers that have been missing during the social isolation of the pandemic. All participants come together with enthusiasm during meals and other camp-wide activities.
