We’ve been taking it easy the last few days minus today’s excitement of my dad getting home from traveling for work. So this seems like the perfect time to explain more about what Rotary is and how I became involved.

Rotary International is a service focused organization comprised of around 1.4 million members in ~46,000 clubs from over 200 counties. The members of these clubs are called Rotarians.

Rotarians come together under the principle “Service Above Self” and follow the “Four Way Test” a set of guidelines in order to do good in our daily lives:

“Of the things we think, say, or do:

1. Is it the truth?

2. Is it fair to all concerned?

3. Will it build goodwill and better friendships?

4. Will it be beneficial to all concerned?”

Rotarians serve their community and the international community through a commitment to volunteer work and advocacy. The majority of Rotarians are current or retired business professionals who also bring their personal expertise as well as contributing their time and through financial means.

Rotary has been in and out of my life for nearly 15 years but I didn’t alway recognize their presence.

My first experience with Rotary was in 2008 when they gifted a dictionary to each child in the third grade at my elementary school.

My second experience was 2013 when they came into my 8th grade social studies class to discuss peer pressure and other difficult social situations we may encounter through high school. They gave us examples and helped us talk through how the Four Way Test could be applied to analyze the situations.

These early situations are good examples of small projects Rotary does with youth in their community. However, a more major example and what I view as my true entrance to Rotary was coming in 2016.

In 2016, I interviewed and was selected to attend RYLA, the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards. This week-long, fully funded, camp is an intensive leadership program putting incoming juniors and seniors on teams of nine to thirteen members. These teams are led by a Junior Counselor, a youth who previously attended RYLA as a conferee, and a Senior Counselor, a Rotarian. The week features teamwork activities, advocacy work, motivational speakers, hiking, and leadership development. To say this camp changed my life feels like an understatement at this point. It cued off this whole adventure. It brought me friends and mentors and skills that I never would have had without it. I was hooked.

Immediately following RYLA, I join Interact. Interact club is the youth version of Rotary usually intended for middle school and high school students. I had the opportunity to be the secretary as well as a member of my local interact club and even organized our iRYLA event, our own miniature version of RYLA. During the same time I also applied to become a Junior Counselor (JC) at RYLA.

After spending two summers as a JC, I was able to return to RYLA again on staff as the photographer. I had the opportunity to document the entire week of the camp for all attendees. At this time I was also applying for college. Rotary not only granted me a scholarship but Rotarians I had met through RYLA acted as references for both college and career goals in this time.

In 2019, as I began attending college I realized my college did not have a Rotaract, the college-age version of Rotary. So during this year, far younger than most do, I hopped into Rotary. I was welcomed into the Loveland-Thompson Valley Club. Members of this club became important mentors to me and also allowed my Rotary journey to continue adding me on my financial situation as a college student would’ve made Rotary difficult.

Rotary as an organization has truly changed and benefited my life and the lives of so many others around the world.

I look forward to talking more about Rotary and it’s impact on my life and more post in the future.