RYLA

The weekly meeting of the Rotary Club of Kirkcaldy was held on September 8th at the Dean Park Hotel. President John Kilgour welcomed members of the club along with our Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) guests – Talia Toruntay and teacher Debbie Aitken from Kirkcaldy High School; Sorcha Wood and teacher Gordon Wood from St Andrews HS. Lara Paterson and Rector James More from Balwearie HS were expected later. Unfortunately Balwearie pupil Ben Ramsay was unwell and the Club hoped he would come to speak at a future meeting.

President John Kilgour then formally welcomed our newest member to the club. Dr Swapan Mukherjee has transferred from the Rotary Club of Leven. He was warmly welcomed.

An appeal for help for Calais Refugees put out by pupils of St Andrews HS was highlighted and pupils praised for their efforts. Any donations will be gathered at club next week.

There is no Council meeting this month and the next meeting will be 12 October.

The Club then heard three lively and different presentations from Talia, Sorcha and Lara about their stay at the RYLA camp at Abernethy this year. We were treated to vivid photographs and equally vivid word pictures of their experiences. These ranged from hill walking, kayaking and gorge walking to raft building, team challenges and a campfire sing song on the last night (complete with ukulele!). All three had found challenges in different activities throughout the week according to their own strengths and fears. What shone through from listening to all of them was that they had had risen to those challenges, overcome them and really enjoyed the new experiences. By the end of their week, they had made new friends from the strangers they’d started out with and learned a huge amount about themselves. All three gave a warm thanks to Rotary for giving them this opportunity.

Ron McGill then gave them a vote of thanks. He commented on how rewarding it was to hear what each girl had gained from the experience and how much each speaker had emphasised the leadership skills they’d gained.

President John then presented each RYLA candidate with a certificate marking their achievements.