History
In 1985, the Rotary Club of San Francisco started Camp Enterprise, a small leadership skills weekend camp for high school students. Jim Patrick led Camp Enterprise and was soon joined by Anita Stangl, Les Andersen, and over time, other Rotarians from our Club and our District. Since then, the program grew substantially and was renamed Rotary Youth Leadership Academy (RYLA), the name that Rotary clubs around the world are using for this type of program.
2024 RYLA Camp
The 38th Annual RYLA Camp was held from July 28 to August 2, 2024 at Camp Redwood Glen & Conference Center in Scotts Valley, California. This year's Camp was the largest in our history. Over 190 campers and over 20 RYLA alumni leaders participated. In addition, there were over 30 adults consisting of Rotarians and non-Rotarians leading this Camp.
The adults and youth alumni arrived on Sunday, July 28, to prepare for Camp. The campers arrived on Monday in five buses from three counties: Marin, San Francisco, and San Mateo.
Here was a typical day at Camp:
| 7:30 AM | All Camp wake-up |
| 8 AM - 8:45 AM | Breakfast |
| 8:45 AM - 10:45 AM | Team Building Activities |
| 10:45 AM - 11 AM | Break/ Snacks |
| 11 AM - 12:15 PM | Team Building Activities |
| 12:15 PM - 1 PM | Lunch |
| 1:10 PM - 3:20 PM | Leadership Sessions |
| 3:20 PM - 5:20 PM | Break/ Snacks/ Free Time |
| 5:30 PM - 6:15 PM | Dinner |
| 6:30 PM - 8 PM | Team Meeting |
| 8:15 PM - 10 PM | Camp Fire |
| 10 PM - 11 PM | Activities/Games/Music |
| after 11 PM | Lights out |
Rotarians Modeling the Way
Thank you to the following Rotarians who modeled the way for our student campers and student alumni:
- Rotary Club of Foster City: Mary Bates.
- Rotary Club for Global Action: Brian Rusch.
- Rotary Club of Ignacio: Jenny Bates and Greg Tull.
- Rotary Club of Los Gatos Morning: Chris Miller.
- Rotary Club of Millbrae: Kristine Baltasar and Joe Teresi.
- Rotary Club of Novato: Jackie Cormier and Maggie Shao.
- Rotary Club of Novato Sunrise: Judy Johnson and Robin Pence.
- Rotary Club of San Francisco: David Dye, Dora Dye, PDG Laine Hendricks, Bob Hermann, Steve Lindstrom, Mary Liu, Lynn Luckow, Sunny Singh, and Todd St Vrain.
- Rotary Club of San Francisco Chinatown: Paul Chin, Liz Mark, Rich Swart, and Johnny Wong.
- Rotary Club of San Francisco Evening: David Alfon.
- Rotary Club of San Mateo: Gary White.
- Rotary Club of San Rafael: Linda Birnbaum.
- Rotary Club of San Rafael Marin Evening: Michael Johnston and Allen Ng.
Thank you also to the additional volunteer adults who made this year's Camp happen: Patricia Bianco, Susan Call, Jenny Campbell, Don Carney, Will Lusk, T.J. Chartrand, Kevin Dai, Winter Felton-Priestner, Josh Hafter, Kyle Mahan, Jane Micallef, Arianna Niu, and Aidan Tull.
Leading the alumni were Kevin Angeles and Karen Kam. Thank you to both and the 22 alumni for outstanding service!
Thanks go to the Rotarians who helped the campers get on and off the buses in
- Marin County:Phil Dougherty from the Rotary Club of Novato and Jean Batman and Harry Thomas from the Rotary Club of Novato Sunrise.
- San Francisco County: Dan Joraanstad, Donna Duensing, and Jim and Jo Patrick, all from the Rotary Club of San Francisco.
- San Mateo County: Deirdri Gladwin, Walt Gladwin, Rachel Heck and her team from Happy Hall Schools, Mike Sung, and Shari Teresi, all from the Rotary Club of Millbrae.
Thank you to our consultants: Harmony Ma (also served as Associate Camp Director), Mike Walsh, and Art Kauffman.
Inspiring, Challenging, and Enabling
Many of the adult leaders named above took on multiple roles.
- Liz Mark and Rich Swart served as Camp nurses.
- Mike Walsh, Brian Rusch, Mary Bates, Sunny Singh, Mary Liu, Don Carney, Jenny Campbell, Todd St Vrain, David Alfon, David Dye, Robin Pence, Gary White, Jenny Bates, PDG Laine Hendricks, Kevin Dai, and Harmony Ma all provided training sessions.
- Emily Peterson and Kerra Hendrickson served as muralists.
- Linda Birnbaum wrote and led our first ever Camp Song!
Lynn Luckow
The 38th Annual Camp closed with a big thank you to Lynn Luckow from the Rotary Club of San Francisco. Lynn completed eight years as our RYLA Camp Director. In the past eight years, Lynn has brought change and growth to this Camp that exceeded all imagination and expectation.
Impact
Was it worth all the work? Jim Patrick still encounters former campers from Camp Enterprise who thank him for that weekend that changed and improved their lives. The alumni who returned in 2024 have shared the impact that RYLA made on their young lives, and many of them look forward to leading this Camp in the future.
Photos
See additional photos from the 2024 Camp here.
2025 RYLA Camp
For more information on RYLA, visit this channel. If you are interested in joining us, information will be posted on www.sfrotary.org when available.