Youth Services District 7780
We Need You
By: Phil Giordano, District Youth Services Chair, Kennebunkport RC
The goal for 2024/2025 is to coordinate and highlight the positive youth development that District 7780 excels at. As the Youth Services Chair the vision is to foster a united front across the four pillars that formulate our youth services impact. The four pillars are Interact Clubs, Rotaract Clubs, Rotary Youth Exchange and RYLA. These are some of our plans and WE NEED YOU!
Each month we look to provide updates via the newsletter, be a resource for clubs, and develop a team that helps to grow and celebrate the good work we are doing as Rotarians focused on fostering positive youth development.
First, we have two pillars that impact a tremendous amount of people through the model of club service. Living and executing on the value of Service Above Self, our Interact and Rotaract clubs are not only the bridge to Rotary’s future, but the foundation for our current service models. Second, we have two pillars that are creating experiences and changing lives through lived experiences. Rotary.org defines these pillars:
- “Interact clubs bring together people ages 12 – 18 to develop leadership skills while discovering the power of Service Above Self.”
- “Rotaract clubs bring together people ages 18 and older to exchange ideas with leaders in the community, develop leadership and professional skills, and have fun through service.”
- “Rotary Youth Exchange builds peace one young person at a time. Students learn a new language, discover another culture, and truly become global citizens. Exchanges for students ages 15 – 19 are sponsored by Rotary clubs in more than 100 countries.”
- “Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) is an intensive leadership experience organized by Rotary clubs and districts where you develop your skills as a leader while having fun and making connections. For ages 14 – 30.”
Interact District 7780
We have Interact clubs throughout District 7780 in both middle schools and high schools. Interact clubs have advisors that are either a school staff member, or a Rotarian, and in some cases, they are both. As the school year is about to begin in September, we will be reaching out to clubs to discover more about the Interact Clubs and how many students we have involved.
We are looking for an Interact Chair / Co-Chairs still for the district. This involves being on the Youth Services team and helping to be a resource for Interact Advisors. This person or people would help to gather stories and help club youth services chairs with Interact ideas. If you are interested, please reach out to me directly.
Rotaract District 7780
Rotarian Carolyn Marcotte, UNE Rotaract Advisor, and member of Saco Bay Sunset RC, is working on a 2025 trip to Poland. Past District Governor Peggy Belanger, of the Kennebunkport RC, is working on getting more community based Rotaract clubs in place. We are talking about Community Rotaract, because we know Rotaract is the bridge for the future of Rotary. If you would like to become more involved in the committees that are looking to build our Rotaract groups, please reach out to the team.
Youth Exchange District 7780
AG Kathi Perkins of the Westbrook-Gorham RC just returned from the regional Youth Exchange Conference with lots of ideas on how we can build our programs. Currently we have two students in our short-term summer exchange program and two students slated for long term exchanges to Japan and Brazil. We have set a goal of getting ten short term exchanges in place for the summer of 2025. To do this we need to expand the Youth Exchange Committee, so if you are passionate about what we can offer on an international basis please contact Kathi.
In District 7780 we have both short-term summer programs and long-term school year programs that we support.
RYLA District 7780
We welcome new camp directors for RYLA 2025. Rotarians Tim Moyer and Jacey Chaves, both of the Portland RC, are taking the lead. They have their first of many staff development training days coming up in August. The goal is to get back to pre-pandemic levels and send 144 campers this coming year.
In District 7780 we have a 4-day outdoor leadership camp that runs at the end of June for rising sophomores. Check out ryla7780.org for more information. We train facilitators all year to be prepared for the new campers.
Service Above Self Youth Summit
We are going to be coordinating monthly all the youth services happenings and are looking to develop a Service Above Self Youth Summit. We need ideas and involvement so please reach out to me if you would like to be part of building this summit. Our contact information is below.
Ongoing support
We are hoping to have a monthly zoom meeting for our committee and invite all Interact Advisors, Rotaract Advisors, Club Youth Chairs, Club Youth Exchange Chairs, and Club RYLA coordinators to join as you can. We will send out more information but plan to begin this in September of 2024.
Yours in Service, Phil
Youth Services Team
Phil Giordano – Youth Services Chair Philtastic7780@gmail.com cell 207-636-6500
Carol Marcotte, Ph.D – UNE Rotaract Advisor & Rotaract Co-Chair cmarcotte@une.edu
Peggy Belanger – Rotaract Co-Chair pegb51@yahoo.com
Kathi Perkins – Youth Exchange Chair kperkins1@myfairpoint.net
Jacey Chavez – RYLA Camp Co-Director jaceychavez12@gmail.com
Tim Moyer – RYLA Camp Co-Director tmoyer92@gmail.com