Borderland Rotary marked the twentieth year of RYLA with an extremely assured and upbeat presentation by the two students sponsored this year by the club, Amber Hunt (Marches 6th Form) and Tabitha Carter (Marches School but nominated by the Air Cadets). But what is RYLA?
RYLA stands for Rotary Youth Leadership Awards and is a week-long residential adventure course held each year at Arthog, an outward bound centre near Fairbourne in North Wales. The young entrants are given the overall task of setting up a business to design and produce a working boat (or raft). To achieve this they must form and manage teams and perform tasks which involve learning practical skills, problem solving and physical challenges to earn their teams RYLA Dollars. These Dollars are then spent on their projects and as the week progresses the individuals develop existing skills and discover talents they didn’t know they had! The tasks come in all shapes and sizes from scaling a climbing tower to crossing a river on a home-made rope bridge. It has been running in this area for twenty years having been introduced by Paul Crosby, a long serving member of Borderland Rotary Club. Paul said, “It’s a big challenge and not for the faint hearted but the personal rewards that these enterprising youngsters seem to go away with is well worth the early mornings, the tough physical exertion and the sometimes uncomfortable conditions. It appears that being suspended over rivers, lashing rafts together or trying to find a novel answer to a cryptic question, really does bring the best out in people!”
If you are interested in challenging yourself in next year’s RYLA or you represent a college or school please contact info@borderlandrotary.co.uk for more information.
Picture 1: left to right: Chris Busnell (instructor) Tabitha Carter, Amber Hunt, Paul Crosby (organiser)
Picture 2: Teams scaling the climbing tower
Picture 3: The class of 2019
