This Week at Rotary

Lexi Kantor, The RYLA Experience
This week, Lexi Kantor, Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) co-chair, presented to our Club about how the District is trying to regrow RYLA since COVID. A RYLA alumna herself, she is deeply passionate about the impact Rotary can have on young lives. Lexi's history in District 7930 also includes former Boston Rotaract Club president and founding member of the district DEI committee.

RYLA is a transformative, weekend-long leadership program that empowers high school sophomores and juniors to build confidence, strengthen leadership skills, and form lasting connections. Organized by Rotary, RYLA combines hands-on activities, teamwork, and mentorship—led largely by passionate RYLA alumni—to create an unforgettable experience for students.

Lexi began her presentation by offering the Club the chance to participate in an activity RYLA students do at the beginning of their stay or to just hear the presentation as prepared. Our adventurous group chose the activity, and we broke into groups to become human knots. Groups of eight joined hands across a circle and had to untangle themselves in an 8-minute time frame. It is unclear if any of the groups succeeded without cheating, but it was definitely clear that everyone had fun trying!

Following the activity, Lexi guided us through a discussion on our experiences. Some said they enjoyed the collaborative nature of the activity. Others made profound statements on how you needed everyone’s perspective to solve the problem, because each participant had their own vantage point; while others made comments about having or holding sweaty hands. The bottom line was the activity provided a fun opportunity to think about the balance of leadership, collaboration, and making sure everyone was heard.

Lexi shared a video that painted a good picture of the RYLA program and shared how local Rotary clubs play a critical role by sponsoring students from their communities and supporting the program through donations. Her ask for the Salem Rotary Club is to help identify sophomore and junior applicants for this year’s program on May 15 – 17. The deadline for students to apply is early April.

She also shared that the program is happy to accept donations at every level. All contributions help make a difference for students and strengthen leadership in our communities. Donations can be made to the District through Venmo (@Rotary7930) or by sending a check made out to Rotary District 7930 (with RYLA in the memo line) to: Kathy Morris, Rockport Rotary Club, 2A Jerden’s Lane, Rockport, MA, 01966.