I'm already sold on our district's RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) program and am so glad that we are able to sponsor up to ten students each year. But, if I didn't already have a heart for RYLA, the October 23rd program would have changed my mind! We welcomed four of our Rylarians, two from senior RYLA and two from Junior RYLA, at our meeting that day. The students formed a panel and shared their experiences at RYLA 2025. It was wonderful to hear how RYLA is still impacting their lives several months after they came home.
Our senior Rylarians are already part of the Centennial Family – Cora and Jessica are Rudy Santos’ twin daughters. Since they were placed in two different groups, they were able to share the differences in their RYLA experience. Malachi and Tristan were able to identify other events and activities that were developed for Junor Rylarians.
We were happy to have Rotarians present who have been involved with RYLA. From Centennial, both Scott and Melissa Gattis have been involved, as has Ted Gilliland. We were also happy to have Doug Armbrust visit us from the Greeley club. Doug has been so involved with RYLA, even as part of the development of the Junior RYLA program. He serves as the RYLA “godfather” for Greeley and always joins us for the RYLA program.
What a great bunch of kids! What a great program! ~Karoline W.