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RYLA Camp: A Chance of Learning and Interacting Among the Young Leaders of the Youth today.

By: Melissa Rafols

Rotary Youth Leadership Award, also known as RYLA, held a camp gathering of future leaders at Caliraya Resorts Club at Lumban, Laguna. The RYLA camp is composed of Rotarians, Rotaractors and Interactors of the Rotary District 3830 Clubs. The camp was held from November 11, 2011, Friday, until November 13, 2011, Sunday.

Day 1: (November 11, 2011)
The meeting place was at the Victory Liner in Edsa, Pasay City for all delegates and the speakers for the first day. The travel time lasted for almost 4 hours. Upon arrival at the venue, the delegates were divided into groups for the room arrangements. The event started at 2:00 PM by the calling to order from the sponsoring clubs and the division of delegates into four teams. The team names are as follows, Team 1: AchuchuDora, Team 2: Innovative, Team 3: Aligaga and Team 4: Fab. The first speaker, PDRR Joannie Sitoy, was introduced by CMP Raissa Hernandez. PDRR Joannie Sitoy gave us a brief background about RYLA and the I-RYLA. She discussed the components of RYLA and what RYLA must have in order to be successful. In the end, she left as a hanging question, “Am I ready to take part and make this RYLA a success?”

CMP Jun Faronilo discussed the House Rules. The House Rules was given to him by the Caliraya Resorts Management. After the discussion on the House Rules, the next speaker/s from the My Masterpiece Movement was introduced. My Masterpiece Movement is a community of artist. The guests from the My Masterpiece Movement are composed of Teacher Anna, Teacher Kara, Teacher Erica, Teacher Nica, and Teacher Heather. Teacher Anna discussed about how “Life is not about Finding Yourself.. Life is About Creating Yourself” and that “Culture of Creativity is… Our Power to Create Ourselves and Our World.” In intervals with the discussions, we had some game activities and reflection on the activities. Some activities involve on reflecting on how we lead as an individual and on how we view ourselves behind the horizon. Day 1 ended with a Drum Circle that is still facilitated by the My Masterpiece Movement.

Day 2: (November 12, 2011)
The morning wake-up call was at 5:00 AM. All the delegates were expected to be ready by 7:00 AM for the breakfast and the Day 2 activities started at exactly 8:00 AM. Upon the arrival of the delegates at the function room, we started the day with body prayer and an energizer activity. The District Governor Ismael Z. Villareal visited the camp and encourages the delegates to learn and have fun during the stay at the RYLA camp. He even told us, the delegates, that the RYLA camp will help us develop self-confidence and leadership skills.

The facilitators, Cathy Gonzales, Mennen Gonzales and Camille Depano, were introduced by CMP Jun Faronilo. The facilitators themselves introduced themselves individually. The seminar scheduled on that day has a theme of “S.I.G.E. @ RYLA” which the “S.I.G.E.” stands for “Seminar on Integrated Group Empowerment”. Kuya Mennen started the seminar by giving a brief background of what a Group is and what are the elements and functions of a Group. Ate Cathy, facilitated the discussion about communication within the group. Levels of communication were also enumerated during the discussion. After discussion about Communication we had our lunch break.

The sessions for the day resumed at 1:00 PM, the topic for the 3rd Session of the day is about Qualities of a team or group. It is facilitated by Kuya Mennen. He ended the session with a message “It’s ok to have conflicts.. It’s ok to express your feelings.. As long as you’re still respectful”. Ate Camille, as the last facilitator, she focused her discussion about ourselves as an individual. Her discussion tackled more on knowing ourselves, valuing ourselves and improving ourselves. In every discussion she left us with encouraging words such as “God Created You” and “You’re Beautiful, You’re Important, Value Yourself”. As the session of the day ends, she left us an activity that shall reflect our individual inner thoughts and had our discussion among the team. Lastly, as for the closing of the “S.I.G.E. @ RYLA” seminar, we had an S.O.S that stands for “Signs of Solidarity”. During this time all the Rotarians, Rotaractors and Interactors had a chance to share a hug, a handshake, and a heartfelt thanks for having a wonderful stay and time at the RYLA camp. Games, singing of songs and some energizers were made during the intervals of each session. As for every games that we do, we always have a reflection on what has transpired and what we had learned among the activities that we do.

CMP Emy Magdangal delivered the closing remarks. He left us a message that each of us should always remember to be a good leader “I am a leader but in order to be a good leader I must be a good follower”.

The RYLA Camp does not end to this. We still have the Bonfire activity. We were given an hour and a half to practice for the team cheering competition. Every team became highly competitive for the 3000Php prize. The Cheering Competition and Raffle was held at the Bonfire near the Caliraya Lake. Each participant was able to win on the Raffle Game. The AchuchuDora team was then announced as the winning team for the cheering competition. While our team, the Fab team, was announced as the 2nd place and won 1000php prize. The Aligaga Team and Innovative Team shared the 3rd place with a 500php prize per team. By the end of the night, the Rotarians and facilitator allowed all the delegates to enjoy the night and have fun. We were given the permission to stay up late as long as we would all be ready the following day by 7:00AM. The participants had fun in sharing experiences and lounging by the pool side. Some even stayed until the morning daylight to have a chat and get to know the new found friends.

Day 3: (November 13, 2011)
November 13, 2011 has been a tiring day for everyone. We woke up late due to events that transpired the day before. We had our breakfast by 7:30AM and packed our things. We were all set by 8:30AM. Before we left the vicinity, the facilitator distributed the Certificates of Attendance to the entire delegates of the RYLA camp. We left Caliraya Resorts at exactly 9:00AM and arrived at the Victory Liner in Edsa, Pasay at nearly 12:30PM.

The RYLA camp activities have been a strenuous yet fulfilling experience to each individual. We were able gain friends and have fun during the learning activities that we had. Indeed, the RYLA camp has been a successful not just as an event but also as an experience to us. Hope that we would all have a chance to meet again and catch up on the things that we had accomplished after the camp.