Greater Bend Rotary - Newsletter Links

This year's camp was a great success with the largest number of students we have ever had - 127. There was a problem on the second day when several of the campers came down with a 24-hour stomach flu, but they bounced back quickly as only young people can do. It was amazing to see how the other campers and staff stepped up to the plate and helped each of them through that difficult time.

As I read through the evaluations the campers filled out on the last day, I was really impressed with the remarks they made about their camp experience. Many commented on how their lives were changed by this experience and how much they grew to become better people. They talked about how they learned from all the leadership activities and lessons and the changes they intend to make when they returned home.

When we met the busses as they arrived at the camp we saw lots of faces telling us they weren't really sure they wanted to be there. They were all told that if they participated and became a part of this camp they would leave changed persons. Several of those campers on the day of departure came up to say that we were right. The camp had really impacted them, and they didn't want to leave.

These are the young people of our District and of our country, and many are destined to be leaders in our communities, states, or even possibly our Nation. Each of your clubs (and especially you RYLA chairs) that afforded one or more of these young people to attend this camp are to be applauded. These are difficult times in all of our lives with a poor economy, few new jobs, out of control prices, and so many other negative influences around that it's easy to lose sight of our future. Let me tell you, that with young people like these, the future looks better and better.

We are acutely aware that in the last days before camp there were a few cancellations and we had to fill your commitments with alternate students from elsewhere in the district. This was not a waste of your funds, because we are all part of District 5110, and we are Rotary. Just to give any young person this opportunity, whether from our own community (club) or not, is to help build that brighter future for all of us.

Thank you for all your effort and work to make all this possible.

Tommy Drynan, District 5110 RYLA Chairman