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Photo by RYPEN

RYPEN Camp Report from Daniel Roussounis District RYPEN Chair

RYPEN COORDINATOR Daniel.Roussounis and edited by Anne Matthews —

After two years and many setbacks, mainly due to COVID-19, our Rotary Youth Program of Enrichment (RYPEN) was finally held over the weekend of 22-24 April 2022.

The lives of the 15 students who participated in the camp, held at the PCYC in Yeppoon, were certainly enriched by this three-day program. RYEN is designed to assist 15-17 year olds develop leadership skills, a greater sense of self-awareness and to appreciate diversity in society.

Image by: RYPEN


 Participants interact with like-minded people, while having fun and learning new skills in areas such as public speaking and problem solving. The activities are designed to stretch the mental, physical and social skills of all participants both in groups and individually.

Image by: RYPEN

RYPEN gives students opportunities and challenges that help them review themselves, look at where they are in life and decide their future direction. This is achieved by providing an environment in which they can explore their own boundaries and gain a sense of self-understanding and self-reliance.

Students arrived at the camp on Friday night. One student flew in from Cairns and the other 14, who came from the Bundaberg region, arrived in two mini buses. Following a BBQ dinner, the rules and expectations of the weekend were explained. Then ice breaker games such as a Human Knot were played.

Image by: RYPEN

Workshop sessions included Paths to Success, Goal Setting, Time Management and Resilience Training, which covered positive coping strategies, mediation and the different types of resilience. There were also hands-on activities such as tower and raft building; River Wild; Noughts and Crosses; and navigating minefields wearing a blindfold, whilst depending on your partner to get you across.

Greg from PCYC delivered a two-hour session of team-building activities. This allowed leaders to observe the students and identify ones that may need more support. It also gave leaders time to prepare their presentations and activities.

Image by: RYPEN

It was a very successful camp thanks to the District RYPEN team - Maddie Sampson, Storm Drabsch and Blair Felsch. Also thanks to Andrea Bax, from Bundaberg Regional Council, who provided financial support to run 2022 RYPEN. Thanks to Carol Gorton who stepped up to help Daniel. And a special thank you to DG Martti who joined in via Zoom to congratulate the students.

Image by: RYPEN

"Dear Discovery Coast Rotarians, 

Deljay and I had a great RYPEN experience. It was a very fun weekend and we made some amazing friends.

We learnt lots of teamwork skills, and they told us about heaps of different rotary programs. Deljay is very interested in the science one, nysf, I think it was called. 

There were also some which I found interesting, which correlated with my area of interest in study- Human Rights and International Relations, which I think were called muna and raic. We learnt about overcoming obstacles and being more resilient, which is an important trait to develop.
Deljay enjoyed herself too.
We thank the club for giving us the opportunity to attend.
RegardsGemma"