60 in 60 #27 Rotary- RYLA & RYPEN
I am reflecting on the last 60 years, and writing 60 blog posts. 30 about people and 30 about events, places, experiences and entities.
I am not and never have been a member of Rotary, the international service club. But, I have great respect for them as an organisation and a long association with them dating back to 1985. Rotary has clubs all over the world, divided up into districts. There are three districts in WA, 945, 946 & 947. That year, the first after I returned from my time overseas, I was working for the YMCA. Someone gave me an application form for RYLA- the Rotary Youth Leadership Award seminar, an annual leadership training event held in each district. As mentioned previously, I loved going on camps and this sounded like it would be fun. It turned out to be much more than that. For the best part of the next twenty years I was involved with Rotary in one form or another.
My RYLA seminar was held at Lake Cooloongup, south of Perth and was directed by Peter “Chook” Henson. About fifty 18-25 year-olds gathered for a week full of fun, but intensive activities. The program included communication skills, group dynamics, initiative challenges, trust exercises, small group discussions and special events. Chook did a great job and there was a fantastic sense of camaraderie between the participants and the facilitators.
The event that I remember most vividly was called the One World Dinner. As we entered the dining hall we were each given a card and depending on the card, were directed to one of three areas for lunch. At first it seemed like a game but it soon became apparent something bigger was going on. A small group sat at a lavishly decorated table and were attended by waiters who supplied an abundance of fancy food and drink to the lucky recipients. A larger group sat at a plain table and after the top table had been catered for, received a plate of plain sandwiches and a jug of cordial. The final, largest group, of which I was one, sat on the floor in a crowded designated area and about an hour later were given one pot of boiled rice to share. No explanation was given. It was up to us to work out what was happening and interpret it accordingly. The whole exercise lasted a couple of hours and it was an emotional and eye-opening experience. To conclude it, labels were attached to the three areas, USA for the top table, India for the bottom group and a second world country for the middle group. When it finished we all sat in a big circle to debrief and discuss what we thought it was about. It was simple yet profound. We had had a brief taste of the disparity in the world, of the inequality experienced each day where millions of people go hungry while a small number of “wealthy” people have more than enough. It led to a lot of intense discussion and reflection and not a few tears. As a new Christian I was deeply moved by the whole thing and felt grateful to the team who had run it for “enlightening” us in such an effective way. I said at the time they should have labelled the top table Australia though.
We were introduced to representatives of the RYLA Association, a group of people who had attended various other RYLA seminars, and many of us joined up. There were lots of great people on my seminar, one of whom, Michelle, became a friend who I’m still in touch with 35 years later.
We went to the annual RYLA Association reunion weekend a few months later and I was elected President! For the next few years I was active in the Association and edited the newsletter. We ran a weekend camp for kids called Uncle RYLA each year.
Michelle worked for one of the Rotarians and in 1989 when they were looking for a new seminar director she suggested me.
From 1990 to 1995 I directed six RYLA seminars, mostly back at Lake Cooloongup. I recruited a team of group facilitators and we spent 3-4 months planning and preparing the program. I can’t recall all of them but amongst my teams over the years were Michelle, Laurie Haynes, Mike Klenner, Kent Pitman, Alex Leitch, Steve Merchant, Khristo Newall, Phil Sparrow (remember that name), Sally Burgess and one special year, Carolyn was able to be part of the team while Mum looked after our kids. Some of the program we copied from our own RYLAs, some of it was new but the main structure centred around small groups where participants could debrief the events of the day or engage in discussion about a range of topics in a safe supportive environment. They became known as D&M groups (Deep and Meaningful).
We added in a new adventure element to RYLA, taking the participants to Margaret River for three days of camping, abseiling ,caving and a high ropes course. It was a brilliant addition to the program that built a huge level of trust and cooperation as people faced risk and challenge in an atmosphere of encouragement and support.
Initially we invited guest speakers and presenters but each year as we refined the program we ran more of the sessions ourselves.
I wanted to include the One World Dinner so I went to see Chook to ask his advice and was shocked when he told me it had not been on their original program, it happened because one of his team suggested it while we were at RYLA! I looked for someone experienced to run it for us, including Terry Tero, whose son Cam is now one of my best mates. Unable to find someone willing or able to do it, in the end I decided to have a go myself. It was a steep learning curve but the OWD became one of the standout activities at RYLA each year. We developed roles within it including “plants” at the top table and in the bottom group who accentuated their place in the hierarchy.
For a few years on the penultimate night we joined the participants at another Rotary program, Handicamp, run for people with disabilities, for a disco. It took people out of our comfort zones but was always a highlight of the seminar.
Directing RYLA was a fantastic opportunity and the feedback each year was incredibly positive, for many people it was life-changing as they grew in confidence and self-belief.
It also took a huge amount of work and time, as well as sacrifice on behalf of Carolyn and the kids so after 6 years I “retired” as director. I was greatly honoured the following year when I was named a Paul Harris Fellow, the highest honour bestowed by Rotary, named for its founder.
My work for Rotary continued though, this time as director of RYPEN- Rotary Youth Program of Enrichment, a weekend camp for teenagers from around Western Australia. It was not aimed at leaders so much as kids who were identified as having potential and who may benefit from a motivating experience. For both RYLA and Rypen, Rotary sponsored them to come and covered all the costs.
Our motto was “Fun with a Purpose” and I again recruited a team of facilitators to help me run it. My 2ic was Demelza Needham who I later had the privilege of marrying to fellow Rypen team member Greg Ireland.
While Rypen was not as complex or demanding as RYLA it was still a full-on program that required months of planning and preparation each year. There was more emphasis on fun through games but there were still small groups and challenges. Rather than a One World Dinner, we ran the Money Challenge. It was first suggested by Phil and each year it grew bigger and more impactful. I wrote about it in Chapter 25 about Carine because I ran the Money Challenge on the Year 10 Leadership Camp. By the final years, campers were contributing $10 each, making a final “prize” for the winner of $600-700 thus generating plenty of interest! The camp started on a Friday night with ice breaker games then after dinner, Men in Black, a wide game mimicking the movie where the team dressed, and danced!, as the MIB and the campers were the aliens trying to escape.
Saturday morning the team would take off, don disguises and hide, trying to avoid being caught by the campers in a game we called “Armadale Fugitive”. If discovered, campers had to sing the line of a current pop song and the fugitives had to sing the next line to verify capture. More than once unsuspecting shoppers were confronted by groups of excited kids randomly singing to them. My most memorable disguise was to hide inside a fridge box outside an electrical retailer and watch kids passing by through a peephole.
After lunch the groups were taken through a series of physical and mental problem-solving activities in the Adventure Journey. Borrowing ideas from American organisation, Project Adventure, games such as the Spider’s Web and Nuclear Reactor were fun as well as opportunities to learn about leadership, teamwork and cooperation.
Sunday mornings were given over to art and creativity as we screen printed T-shirts, made badges and modelled with Fimo to create cool souvenirs and mementos of Rypen. The last session was devoted to more games such as Wink Plague Murder before culminating in Police and Protestors which involved all the males huddling in a group clinging to one another while all the girls tried to separate and drag them away from the rest of the boys. It was a sweaty and wild way to finish a fantastic camp for the kids.
For the team it was not quite over.
At the end of both RYLA and Rypen, the last evening was the much anticipated debrief and affirmation session where we talked through all of the elements of the program to gauge their success or otherwise. It was rare that something hadn’t gone well but there were times when we had to acknowledge mistakes and failures. At the end of the debrief we took time to give feedback and affirmations to each other, a process that built confidence and belief as well as issuing challenges to further growth as leaders and facilitators.
I ran Rypen for eleven years before a change in leadership at Rotary resulted in them choosing to run the camp themselves rather than contracting it out to directors and teams like ours. It was a sad end to a fantastic chapter in my career of working with teenagers.
I had many wonderful team members over those 11 years and I am grateful to them for the time, effort and hard work they put in each year.
