Rotary Club News

Every year we use money raised through all our members efforts to fund particularly promising young individuals – one of the programmes we use is called RYLA - Rotary Youth Leadership Award.James Potter was our candidate this year and he joined other Rotary candidates from throughout the country on leadership training. Here is how it turned out for him and for us as members.If you ever need a clear demonstration of Rotary in action the presentation by 17 year old James Potter was a moment as good as any. In a road to Damascus moment, James showed all the assembled members of Thirsk Rotary  the real value of thoughtfully considered investment in a young person. James had been on the RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Award)  to Hebden Hey in July and emerged  from a journey that started out in trepidation, and perhaps even fear, and came back full of the amazing insights in himself, the challenges he had overcome and the lessons learned while building new friendships and skills in the process. The self confidence of this young man lifted the whole room as we witnessed a simple and clear slide presentation of all the advantages of RYLA which he had experienced for himself. James had clearly understood the opportunity it had afforded him to grow as an individual and the absence of a ‘forced’ or rehearsed talk just added a new dimension to the RYLA experience by generating self confidence in his public speaking. His proud parents were doubtless over the moon with the impact the venture had made on this young lad as they watched their son make an excellent assessment of his time on the course. James had been chosen from students at Thirsk  School and the local Scout group for the course which is managed on behalf of Rotary International by a mixture of ex-services and professional management consultants. Following the success of his time at RYLA James has set himself the task of raising money for the Laura Cane Trust – Laura died from  4 types of cancer just 2 weeks after her 17th birthday.  “Teenage cancers are the highest cause of non-accidental death in young people – yet there is very little direct research. My fellow RYLA students will be working together to help the cause and to achieve more as a team”


TO READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE PLEASE SEE THE NEWSPAPER

Full Article