Rotary Youth Report

President Tom Donaldson introduced three guest speakers to the Rotary Club of Linlithgow & Bo'ness at the meeting last Tuesday. President Tom said that he always looked forward to the Rotary Youth Leadership Award event when we selected Academy pupils to go on an Outward Bound course, feeling that it was the most important event of our year. He was pleased to introduce Eilidh Jardine, Aaron Russell and Callum Kynoch plus their teacher from Linlithgow Academy, Diana Mason.

Eilidh told us that until the course she would never have believed that she would have gone swimming in a cold loch, jumped off an eight foot cliff into inky black water or gone gorge walking. Before the week started Eilidh was shy but made a friend with another girl on the minibus & she said that they would probably remain friends for life. Eilidh concluded by saying the course had given her new perspectives & was one of the best experiences she had ever experienced.

Aaron said it had been an amazing opportunity to meet people & he had thoroughly enjoyed all the activities. He was now a lot more confident in meeting new people & he too had overcome his hatred of cold water! He felt that the whole group had gained & learnt a lot from the RYLA week.

Callum said that he had gained a lot of confidence & described the raft race where his team's raft had fallen apart shortly after the start. Rather than give up, they had re-attached a loose barrel with a better knot & gone on to win the event.  All the youngsters agreed that the course had improved their confidence & they had gained two life skills; tying knots & performing basic first aid.

Giving the vote of thanks, Ian Wallace said it had been the Rotary Club's privilege to contribute to their development & that they would go on to make a difference in society. They had demonstrated self confidence & he hoped that they would return to the Academy & act as our ambassadors for the RYLA candidates next year.