Rotary Youth Leadership Awards

Rotary Youth Leadership Awards

The club sponsored two members of the Dover and Deal Sea Cadets to take part in a  RYLA course earlier this year.  This was appropriate as the Sea Cadets featured in our St George’s Day Dinners organised by local rotary clubs at Dover Townhall for some years before the covid pandemic. RYLA courses take place at the Bowles Outdoor Centre near Tunbridge Wells and are designed for youngsters in the 14 to 17 year age range.

Grace and George attended the course earlier in the year; on Wednesday 14^th August Grace gave a presentation to club members as well as members and friends from the Rotary Club of Dover.  George did not attend but Grace managed admirably by herself.

She has been a Sea Cadet for over three years; her other main interest is looking after and riding horses.  Both her parents were in the Navy and her aim is to do the same.  She went to the Goodwin Academy in Deal and will be starting a college course this autumn.  She has been a committed and hardworking Sea Cadet, an organisation which has developed her personal and practical skills and helped her to grow in confidence.  In fact, she is the Mayor of Deal’s current ‘Cadet of the Year.’

Grace gave a clear explanation of her RYLA experience.  It began on a Friday with a meal for all the youngsters on the course.  Then came team building activities, the first being to build a box following a set of instructions, which sounds easy but took an hour for her group to complete.  This was followed by ‘tunnelling’, groups of four going into tunnels and holding on to each other to find their way through.  Grace found this claustrophobic as it was completed in the dark.  The evening ended with sledging on a dry sled run which was a fun activity.

Day two began with an activity involving ropes along the banks of a two metre wide river with groups having to work out how to pass batons from one side to the other.  Another task was to put flags into a pot from one side of the river to the other side.

There were then mini activities in groups to help develop teamwork to overcome difficulties, such as moving a bomb into a box safely, building towers of tyres with the smallest at the bottom, or crossing the river over a broken bridge. 

Other activities included carrying cups of water from one side of the course to the other without spilling them; teams being blindfolded and having to work out missing shapes and their colours; a water raft race between girls and boys, and fun in the swimming pool. The final activity in the evening was an obstacle race with everyone blindfolded.  As the course was wet and muddy, they all had to change into red clothing supplied by the centre on finishing the race.  They all looked like tomatoes.

Day three began with high rope activities, the same exercises they had previously completed on low ropes.  Then followed the presentation section.  There were four groups, and each had to choose one of the following topics to research and then put a presentation together: End Polio Now, ShelterBox, Rotary Foundation, Interact.  This involved not just research and presentation skills, but teamwork in deciding who would do what for the best outcome.

For Grace the best aspect of the course was being with others and making friends and the worst was the food.  She learnt about leadership within team working and the importance of identifying people’s skills and using them to solve problems.

Grace was thanked for her interesting and well-designed presentation which she delivered with clarity and confidence.  She certainly has the qualities which will help her achieve her aim of joining the Navy.  We wish her all the best for her future.