Rotary Youth Leader Award

Rotary Youth Leader Award

The members of the Rotary Club of Wakefield Chantry, had one of their most inspirational meetings of the year when 2 young people came along to talk to the club.

Every year the Club sponsors 2 young people from the Wakefield area to go on the Rotary Youth Leaders Award week held in the Dales. The week they are away is designed to give them confidence to excel at the things they will do as they go forward in life, to believe in their abilities to lead, and to have the self-confidence to succeed.

This year the 2 young people sponsored by the Rotary club were Rebecca Ward and Guy  Beardsmore. Rebecca, from Wakefield Girls High and Guy, from Kettlethorpe High, spent five days with around 30 other young people, doing lots of outdoor projects such as building bridges, Mountain Rescue, building a traverse, building and using a coracle and building and staying in a bivouac in the woods. The group were split into teams to undertake the tasks and each team had a Rotary mentor  to help and guide them during their stay. It was not all work, as they had some fun things such as a murder hunt!! The participants were also treated so some guest speakers during the 5 days. One had canoed down the Mississipi in the USA, another had been an RYLA participant in the past, who was now studying abroad via Rotary and the third a Paralympic athlete.

Rebbeca said of her week away – “I wondered at the end how I could use the experiences of the course in the rest of my life. It has certainly helped me be confident in a group of new people as great bonds can be made. Leadership is something gained through respect from your team and cannot be taught.”

Guy said “I will use the leadership skills we learned to go on to coach sport, and the communication skills and confidence gained to achieve job and everyday goals.”