A 1972 Rotary District 280 had become very large, and it was decided to split the District into two. A new district to be known as 279 was formed and took in the area that we know today as district 9790. The new District Governor was Alex Rigg from Shepparton. He was required to set up a new District organisation at very short notice.
At that time I had been active on the Student Exchange District Committee. One day Alex rang to ask me to be RYLA chairman for the new district. I protested that I had no experience in this project, but Alex–being a very persuasive man–told me that I would soon learn from the books!!
I accepted the challenge and sought information from the previous District 280 Chairman. He told me with a degree of pessimism that it would be impossible to run a RYLA seminar without previous experience! Undaunted, and with an active committee, we started to organise the first seminar for the new District.
We decided on Dookie College as our venue. We held several meetings to decide who should run the seminar. We decided to seek YMCA assistance. We were most fortunate to have Cliff Burns as our RYLA Director.
Our fear then was to have a lack of awardees. so we worked very hard to contact every Club in the District to convince them to sponsor at least one awardee. They all responded well, and with a great deal of pride we commenced our first RYLA seminar with 66 awardees. To my knowledge this number have never been exceeded since that time.
We included many segments in the seminar, including public speaking, bush craft, first aid, driving instruction, etc… We enlisted several Rotarians from nearby Clubs to present these segments. We arranged for a bus to transport the awardees to DECA driving complex at Shepparton. We also attended a Rotaty meeting at Benalla, our sponsor club. The seminar concluded with a very emotional farewell to the awardees.
The following year I was asked again to conduct the RYLA seminar. This seminar was also held at Dookie. We had the situation where it rained heavily, so that we were isolated completely! No speakers could get in, and those who were there could not get out! So we had to alter our program dramatically and arrange new programs using those talents we had on the spot.
The college had no food problems as most supplies were locally produced. We were isolated for 3 days until the water receded. The seminar was successful despite the last minute changes to our program.
In 1977 a friend of mine from the Philippines, Dr Rod Joeson from Bacolod City, visited us and stayed for some time. Rod was incoming District Governor and at that time I was just finishing as RYLA Chairman. Rod was very interested to see both the RYLA project and the results. We discussed this at length, and we decided that he would attempt to introduce a RYLA program into his District when he became governor.
Shortly after his return to the Philippines he contacted me. He also appointed a chairman for RYLA. He and I worked together closely and formulated a program. Later I was invited to attend the first RYLA seminar in District 385 Philippines.
The seminar was held at Bago Beach resort near Bacolod City on Negros island. The venue was excellent. The resort was next to the sea, amongst the palm trees etc... a perfect tropical setting.
There were approximately 25 awardees from the district. They came from a wide area, extending from Zambuanga in the South to the Northern edge of the District. The seminar was conducted on similar lines to ours, with a wide program of youth leadership segments. The seminar concluded with the usual emotional tears etc... Very similar to ours in Australia.
I was then invited to attend the District conference to be held in Iloilo City, to make a presentation on RYLA. This was well received. A motion was passed that RYLA be made a part of the District program with all clubs to participate.
I have not had any feedback in recent times and I hope that RYLA is still alive and well in the Philippines.
Revised from original. PP Jerome Winston, Rotary Club of Greensborough, for RYLA, District 9790, December 2000
Des Greenham - Past Chairman RYLA
