Tonight we were pleased to be able to host our RYLArians from this year’s event Grace Cussell and Sean Kerr and a couple of visitors.
To our visitors first of all. It was a pleasure, as it always is, to have Sue North join us for the evening. Our other visitor was Vijay Saini a friend of Harjit Singh. Vijay has been along as a visitor in the past but his work commitments have made it difficult for him to attend. We look forward to seeing him more frequently.
Our visitor from Glendowie
Our featured speakers for the evening were Grace and Sean who spoke about their recent RYLA experience. Every year we enjoy the tales of those that Howick Rotary has sponsored on RYLA and this year was no exception. Grace is no stranger to our club having first encountered us (or did we encounter her?) a few years ago when she was our outgoing exchange student to Denmark. Those of us who dine a Basalt are likely to encounter her when she goes out of her way to make it a pleasant experience. I understand that after midnight she undergoes a transformation when she has to move into throwing out mode for the upstairs bar. Of course none of us would ever have experienced that – probably fast asleep!! Sean is an interesting character in his own right. If you were there you can finally say “I met a rocket scientist.” Sean is one of the team at Rocketlab developing, assembling rockets in Auckland and launching them from Mahia peninsula in northern Hawkes Bay.
Guest speakers Grace Cussell and Sean Kerr
Their presentation was enlightening and amusing as they related their experiences and responses to the range of interesting speakers, thought provoking tasks and major physical challenges encountered over their RYLA week. For all participants it is always a test mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually taking them to a place most have never been before. They come out of their experience with a new found confidence in their own abilities and a desire to go onto significant achievements. We look forward to seeing them develop over the coming years.
RYLA is one of Rotary’s many great programs and has been, and continues to be one that I am committed to. I hope our club continues to support it for many years to come.
Bookarama is now started with book collecting and sorting underway. Please help John Savory and his team in anyway that you can. Without the funds raised through Bookarama we cannot provide the level of support we do through Rotary.
Thank you for your service.