Rotary Youth Leadership Conference at Camp Letts

Ashley Jackson poses with the flag that her group created at the 12th Annual Rotary Youth Leadership Camp, held over the Presidents Day weekend at Camp Letts. The Shady Side teen was sponsored by the South County Rotary Club. Photo by Mitchelle Stephenson -For The Capital

By MITCHELLE STEPHENSON, For The Capital

Published February 19, 2009

There were 136 high school students at Camp Letts over President's Day weekend, working in small groups to come up with community service projects to take back to their communities.

The students were there as part of the Rotary Youth Leadership Conference, sponsored by Rotary clubs from Central Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Delaware.

The Rotary Club is an international service organization that has been in existence for over 100 years. Internationally they have been at the forefront of efforts to eradicate polio and stimulate peaceful resolution of conflicts. Locally, they distribute dictionaries to every public and private school third-grader in our area and sponsor youth leadership activities through high school clubs like the Interact Club.

Both Southern High in Harwood and South River High in Edgewater have Interact Clubs. Through student participation in Interact, local Rotary units recruit and sponsor students with outstanding leadership skills to participate in the conference. The local clubs pay all of the expenses for the student to attend.

Emilee Roughton, 16, is a junior at South River High School. She enjoyed her experience. "I met a whole bunch of people and I learned to be more confident," she said.

The students arrive on Friday night and are separated from the students they know. They are broken into 20 groups of six or seven students. Two counselors are assigned to each group. The counselors are brought in from local college campuses that have Rotoract clubs, a junior division of Rotary.

Over the course of the four days, the students will get to know one another, work on team-building activities, and come up with a service project, which they will be graded on.

Students also listen to speakers, who counsel them on leadership traits.

Katelyn McDonough, 16, is a junior from South River High School. She lives in Riva, and attended her first leadership conference this past weekend. Her group, Group 20, developed a service project that involved two-way interactions between businesses and high school students.

First, the businesses would come to the school to help with a jobs fair, and in a reciprocal agreement, student interns would be sent to the businesses to help them learn about recycling and to develop eco-friendly office practices.

"I think I learned more from being in the group than the presentations," Katelyn admitted. "Working together to make our flag and do our project, I really learned a lot about cooperation and leadership," she said.

Katelyn's project ended up winning third place in the final judging.

Southern senior Ashley Jackson, 17, of Shady Side has participated twice in the conference, both last year and this year. "At our school, the Interact Club does a lot of service activities. We make care packages and do homeless ministry," she said.

She likes every aspect of the conference. "I like the ice breakers, the ropes, the group activities and the speakers," Ashley said.

Dawn Jackson, Ashley's mom, was at the final awards luncheon on Monday. "Ashley sent me a text message halfway through the weekend saying she was having the time of her life," Dawn said.

"I am very happy with the camp and conference. It's a place you can send your kids that is good. They're serving a purpose and you don't have to worry about them." Dawn said.

The students from Southern High were sponsored by the South County Rotary Club. The students from Southern were sponsored by the Crofton Rotary Club.

Two local elementary school PTAs are hosting upcoming fundraisers to bring more technology into their schools. Lothian Elementary School's PTA is hosting a silent auction and spaghetti dinner at 5:30 p.m. Friday. The cost for the dinner is $4, and children under age 2 eat for free.

Spaghetti, bread and salad is being provided with help from Ledo Pizza. The silent auction will begin at 6 p.m. Items will include a Baltimore Ravens mini-helmet signed by star rookie Ray Rice, riding lessons from Enticement Stables and a raffle for a Nintendo Wii game system. Lothian Elementary is located at 5175 Solomons Island Road. For more information, call 410-222-1697.

Central Elementary School's PTA is looking for donations for its upcoming Tiger Trot 5K silent auction on April 17. Local businesses are urged to contact TigerTrot@mycentralpta.org for details.