Rypen Wake

I've just arrived home after my trip to Perth. The Rypen BBQ went really well. I've directed Rypen camps for Rotary for the last 13 years, using an awesome team of volunteer young people who have given an amazing amount of time energy and love to the cause of running these camps for teenagers. The camps have been extremely successful, receiving rave reviews from the kids who come, and have been great fun for us to run as a team.
But, with no explanation or reason given, Rotary decided to dump us as the team to run this year's camp. We are all disappointed, confused and angry about it considering how hard we've worked to run the best camps we possibly could each year.

Despite writing to Rotary asking for an explanation for their decision, we've heard nothing back. The best we can surmise is that it's politics. It can't be the program because when the new team ran the camp they used our program!
There's nothing we can do about it, it's Rotary's perogative, but we all feel a bit ripped off.

Today's BBQ was a chance for the team to get together for a bit of a wake and final farewell. It was hard to let go after so long. The good news is that the friendships we've formed via Rypen have grown very strong and we are keen to stay in touch, in fact the Perth based crew already stay in touch regularly, and we decided to have an annual BBQ get together just to make sure it happens.

On a positive note, when I told them about the Cool School Race Camp I run for year 11 students each December they were all really keen to get involved as leaders. That could be a real blessing because one of the biggest hassles I have each year is getting enough staff to run the camp. Using Rypen volunteers will ease the pressure on the school, and the bill for relief staff, a win-win-win situation.

I could have stayed the night in Perth but I felt fairly fresh so decided to come home. The trip went smoothly, with just a stop at Bunbury to stretch my legs and wake myself up sufficiently for the last 50km to Busselton.

I'm going back to work tomorrow, although after a pretty big day I may have trouble getting going first thing in the morning.