Groton Rotary Club fosters student leadership

When most think of Rotary Clubs and the things they do for students, the thing that generally comes to mind first is the sponsorship of foreign exchange students.

While the Groton Rotary Club has not been involved in that endeavor in recent years, it successfully brought back another great opportunity for Groton High School students in 2018 that had been dormant here since the spring of 2010.

The Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) is a leadership program coordinated by Rotary Clubs around the globe. Each year, thousands of young people age 13 to 30 participate in this program, sponsored to attend the event by Rotary Clubs in their areas. The local Rotary District that includes Groton holds RYLA the week immediately following graduation in June at either Hartwick University or SUNY Oneonta.

Until the spring of 2010, Groton Rotary Club and Groton High School regularly sent students to the local RYLA held in Oneonta. From then until 2017, Groton Rotary tried unsuccessfully to send students because it lacked the necessary support of school personnel to coordinate the recruitment and selection of students.

In 2017, after becoming active in the Groton Rotary Club, Tim Heller, chief information officer for Groton Central School, became the coordinator of Groton’s RYLA program. Heller had a special interest in RLYA, as his daughter, Kelsey, attended RYLA in 2010 as one of Chenango Forks’ nominees.

Heller knew firsthand the benefits of the RYLA program and its goals of helping attendees develop confidence, understand and value diversity and foster leadership skills. Coincidentally, Kelsey attended RYLA the same year as Groton alumna, Deanna Darling, who later became one of Kelsey’s roommates at Misericordia University.

Knowing the scope of work involved with the recruitment and selection of qualified students, Heller enlisted the assistance of GHS teacher, Babs Carr, to help with the process. Carr agreed to help with publicizing and communicating to the junior class about the program. Together, Carr and Heller created a process to select students for nomination to the RYLA program.

For the past two years, a representative from Groton Rotary has joined Carr and Heller during the interview process to select the candidates to send to RYLA.

For the 2017-18 school year, Groton Rotary sponsored Colin Harrington and Reese Lockwood to attend the program, and for the 2018-19 program, Groton Rotary again sponsored two students and GCS sponsored an additional student. Thus, Morgan Dittman, Jaelynne Harriott and Drew Jackson were all selected and able to attend.

At its meeting on Monday, Dec. 16, the Groton Board of Education was treated to a presentation that all three students had taken part in putting together to explain RYLA. Dittman and Jackson were unable to attend the meeting due to other school events that night, but Harriott outlined the program and conveyed how meaningful the experience was for her.

Harriott explained how the four-day stay at the SUNY Oneonta campus focuses on developing and strengthening leadership skills but, in reality, is so much more than that.

“It was one of the best experiences of my life, and I will never forget the things I learned or the friends I have made for life,” she said.

The students kept a pretty tight daily schedule with a large group gathering where everyone listened to a speaker and participated in activities, after which they would break into small groups that were assigned at the beginning of the week to discuss what the speakers talked about and how they might apply it to their respective lives and schools.

Harriott also spoke about the various interest groups that each student chose to be a member of for the week: Community Service – talked about different service projects we could do in our communities and collected supplies to give to a homeless shelter in the area; Yearbook – gathered pictures and made a slide show at the end of the program to show all the memories, Environmental Issues – sent letters to the governor to fix issues; Talent Show – organized and planned a talent show that took place during the week; and Keepsake – made key chains for all the students attending RYLA.

The collective statement that all three Groton students put together, which Harriott shared during the presentation, was this: “RYLA was very eye opening because it made us realize that all people struggle with similar problems or issues, yet most people avoid talking to each other and helping one another. We learned how to relate to people and have genuine and meaningful conversation with them.”

Many other topics were discussed throughout the week such as school violence, mindset, mindfulness and identity.

Harriott shared how meaningful the group discussions were, particularly as they pertained to sharing one another’s life struggles.

“I keep in touch with everyone I met there,” she said. “We are bonded for life – like a huge family. It was a great experience, and I am very grateful for it.”

For this school year, plans are already being made to again send three students to RYLA in June; two funded through Groton Rotary and one through the Groton School District.

Groton on the Inside appears weekly. Submit news ideas to Linda Competillo, lmc10@cornell.edu or 607-227-4922.

In brief:

Fun at the library

The Groton Public Library will sponsor “Winter Break at the Library” for all kids. It will be open from 12 to 2 p.m. each day during the school break with free pizza and “Fun and Activities with Aaron, Aiden, and Braedy.”

The library will be closed on Tuesday, Dec. 24, Wednesday, Dec. 25, and Wednesday, Jan. 1. It will close at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 31. The “Winter Break” program will be offered all other weekdays from Dec. 23 to Jan. 3.
New winter hours for January through March are 2 to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday, and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.

Tree grinding

The Village of Groton Electric Department will be grinding Christmas trees beginning Monday, Jan. 6, 2020. Please bring your tree to the curb for grinding. As always, mulch is available to village of Groton residents free of charge at the wastewater treatment plant.

Free food and clothing

During this busy, hectic and budget-straining time of year, The Groton Food Pantry reminds all Groton town and village residents about its food pantry. Beginning at 10 a.m. every second and fourth Saturday of each month at The Joyce Crouch Benevolence Building, 701 S. Main St., the Groton Food Pantry (GFP) is open for business, providing free food until 11:30 a.m.

Donations of canned or other non-perishable food are always welcome, as are cash donations of any amount. For any questions you may have, please contact Jess Stone at (607) 592-4825, or visit the GFP website at grotonassembly.org/groton-food-providers.

The Clothing Closet, 160 Main St., where women, children and men may receive gently used clothing completely free of charge, would also like to remind everyone to stop by during its regular hours from 10 a.m. to 12 noon on the second and fourth Wednesdays and Saturdays of every month.

Donations of clothing are also gratefully accepted during these hours and are particularly in need of clothing for girls, size 4 through junior sizes. Currently, they are not accepting any spring or summer fashions.

A word from the columnist

I thank you all for your readership and wish everyone a blessed and merry Christmas. To those who do not celebrate it, I hope you enjoy the holiday season nonetheless and that joy will fill your hearts.