History of RYLA

First District 5520 Boys RYLA Camp: 1985

First District 5520 Girls RYLA Camp: 1994 

 

District 5520 RYLA Summary Information - Shane Lemon

 

District 5520 celebrates it's long history of hosting RYLA Camp. Each year, we are challenged to find the financial and human resources to host an average of 80+ boys and 100+ girls in a two-week time slot in July. We do this by requesting support from the 60 clubs in our District who take on the responsibility to donate $950 for each camper they commit to identifying, interviewing, selecting, and transporting to and from our camp. We also ask our Clubs to help us find 50+ adult volunteers to take a week away from their families and spend their vacation time with us to staff both camps. In addition, we ask our RYLA staff (i.e. Youth Services Chair, RYLA Chair, Camp Directors & Assistant Camp Directors) to commit to hundreds of volunteer hours to market, organize, coordinate, and deliver an effective, outstanding leadership camp to our youth; this must comply with all current regulations regarding “youth protection” and reflect both the ideals and spirit of Rotary. Furthermore, our District and RYLA leadership assume the liability inherent in such an undertaking, and we commit to spending approximately $100,000 each year to do this.   

 

This being said, I offer a recent quote from Rotarian Sonny Brown, one of the founders of RYLA in our District:  

 

“I attended the Boys Camp for my 34th year, and it was outstanding as usual. The boys attending were so refreshing and very pleased and happy to have been guided by mature, knowledgeable, and caring counselors. They provided an excellent male father figure that many of them need and seek. Only keeping with this tradition, which is how RYLA in our District was founded, will we continue to be so remarkably successful. I was not present for the Girls Camp, but I was led to believe that their emphasis has been modified to have the girls run the camp. I'm certain that it was successful also. The differences between the two camps do emphasize the varying needs young people have at that stage in their lives, and shows the importance of our continuing to host two camps; Boys for 34 years and Girls for 25 years. Doing so has made our District RYLA the envy of the Rotary world. Other Camps can only dream of the success in building young leaders we have; truly learning who they are and the confidence they obtain to become stronger leaders in just one short week. The experience Rotarians gain is immeasurable and has provided our District Leadership un-excelled. There are always slight modifications that need attention, but the basis for being the Best RYLA in the World remains...Let's keep a great thing going! All the best!!”   - Sonny Brown

 

Having been in RYLA for many years, I can say with a certain degree of confidence that the people I’ve worked with over the years, at both our club and District level, are the most dedicated, “service above self” type of people I’ve ever met. We have been fortunate to have them bring this program to life with an unmatched degree of excellence.