Rotary Program: 9/10/03

Program Chairperson: Jerry Kanney

Speaker: Dr. Rakeesh Sachdeva, Rotary District 6740 Representative

Our own fellow Rotarian, Rakeesh Sachdeva, M.D. brought us a program about the need for our District to start a program geared toward the youth called Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA). The power-point presentation was given to acquaint our club with the burden Rakeesh and others in District 6740 have in starting Rotary programs that will identify and develop potential leaders through Interact, a high school- based arm of Rotary Club, Rotaract, which is for college-age students, RYLA, for all youth between the ages of 14 and 30, and the Youth Exchange Program. Today, however, Rakeesh wanted to focus our attention on only one of these programs called RYLA. Any club can sponsor a group of young people in RYLA in two different age categories – Junior RYLA for ages 14 – 16 or Senior RYLA for ages 17 – 30. RYLA programs offer all expense paid seminars, camps, or workshops to discuss leadership skills and learn those skills through practice.

RYLA was officially adopted by Rotary International in 1971 and aims to: (1.) Demonstrate Rotary’s respect and concern for youth, (2.) Provide an effective training experience for selected youth and potential leaders, (3.) Encourage leadership of youth by youth, and (4.) Recognize publicly young people who are rendering service to their communities. Rakeesh reported that our club will be sponsoring a Junior RYLA program for our community for students between 14 and 16 years of age or 8th – 10th graders. They will be following the Rotary International theme for 2003-2004 by “Lending-A-Hand” for seniors. We hope to enroll 15 to 20 young people who will meet at the Pikeville Public Library every Tuesday from 6:00 to 8:00 P.M. to tutor our senior citizens in computer literacy for 12 weeks beginning on October 1, 2003. In addition to the community service project to senior citizens, the participants will be educated about the mission of Rotary International and other opportunities available to them through Rotary. The culminating event will be a district retreat where participants will have an opportunity to interact with youth from other clubs to reinforce the fundamentals of positive leadership, community service, and global citizenship.

From these participants the sponsoring clubs hope to produce future Ambassadorial Scholars, Peace Scholars, and eventually new Rotary members. Anyone who would like to nominate someone to participate in our club’s RYLA program can contact Seema Sachdeva at 606-432-0123 during working hours or at 606-433-1042 during evening hours. The deadline to return entry forms is September 30, 2003. Thanks, Rakeesh for the informative program and we hope our RYLA is a huge success. – J. Morgan Chapman