Meeting in Review - August 5th 2021

Last weeks meeting lived up to expectation with our recently awarded Rylarians turning up in force to share their experiences from last months RYLA Camp.  More on RYLA further down following other news / Club Notices.

 

The first formality on the night was for Co-President Lesley to present Gavin Gilmer with his 30+ years of Rotary service letter from the International President.  Congratulations Gavin and a big thank you from all your Rotary colleagues for your commitment and service over so many years.

 

Co-President Penny then thanked all club members for their participation last weekend, collecting grocery items from some very generous shoppers at the Lunn Ave New World.  The recipients of the 80 boxes of food collected was the GI CAB.

 

Peter B and Gary updated the club on progress at the Apirana Reserve.  It's a very large reserve which is critical to the environment and water quality in the many other streams in the area.  This "project", and our involvement with the Council and other volunteer groups, has the potential to become a significant ongoing project for our club - it joins the dots and crosses the t's.  Watch this space for more on our involvement in the future.

 

Prior to hearing from the RYLA contingent, President Penny welcomed PP and Honorary member, Ainie Kwok to update us on the District 9920 Spring RYPEN Camp which will take place in October this year.  Ainie has secured the support of Rotaract and former Rylarians to organise and run RYPEN, and over the last two years Rotarians have been able to step back and hand the reigns over to these folk who have done an excellent job. This is another prime example of taking advantage of previous Rotary activity to further join the dots while retaining the interest of these young people.  Ainie also introduced the next band of RYPEN Leaders, and the Leader Craig Sionetuato and some of his team, updated us on their progress.

 

Great to see you again Ainie and sincere thanks for your continued support and efforts on behalf of District 9920, despite you now being an active member of Wellington Rotary.

 

Director Youth, Tom Street, was then invited to introduce the 2021 Rylarians along with Peter Ross District Director of RYLA, who introduced members of the District RYLA support group who were also keen to receive feedback from the awardees.

 

St, Johns Rotary sponsored eight young leaders to attend last months RYLA and six of the eight were present on the night - Pun, Fuga, Josh, Harsha, Scott and Spencer.  The presentation was broken into four sections; "Expectations", "Speakers", "Island Experience" and "the After".  All were very positive about RYLA, including the Island Experience, although in some cases this took awardees well out of their comfort zone to the edge of despair.  However, all made the most of the experience and they were able to capitalise on this and will take all experiences and new friendships forward into their life and careers.

 

In wrapping up the presentation and on behalf of all Rylarians, lead presenter Josh, sincerely thanked St. Johns Rotary for their sponsorship and their message to St. Johns and District 9920 was to remain involved in RYLA to help it to continue to grow and evolve.