Sam Clark's Visit
Last Thursday Sam Clark, grandson of Rotary member Tony Tizzard and Cynthia came and spoke to us about his participation in the RYLA course held at University College in January.
Sam is no stranger to Rotary having two grandfathers who are Rotarians at the Belfast/Kaiapoi and the Papanui clubs and having been to many of our activities with his parents Lisa and Stuart. It was great that his parents and both sets of grandparents were present last Thursday. Sam's older brother Josh was also a RYLA student some years ago.
Sam gave us a day to day account of RYLA. He enjoyed the entire week but his favourite speaker was Richard Smith who was diverse, very informative and assisted the students in a range of activities and skits.
The first morning of RYLA the students were asked to get up at 6.00am to participate in a daily exercise routine. Sam wasn't looking forward to this but after the first morning he was hooked as were many of the other RYLArians.
On one of the activities Sam needed six volunteers to come and together hold a fishing rod with one finger whilst they lowered themselves down and did a squat. Try as they might they were not able to get into the squat position and hang onto the fishing rod. This exercise proved you don't always need an entire team to be successful in an exercise.
On day four the group went to the high ropes course. There they learnt you did some activities as individuals but at times you need to assist others who might feel challenged in some way get across the line. Sam had done the high ropes course several times before so with some encouragement from the others he did part of the course blindfolded including grabbing the trapese swing.
Sam is doing an engineering degree at Canterbury University and is open to the opportunities open to him when he completes his degree. Sam thanked Papanui Rotary for the sponsorship stating that he had made friendships that he believed would last a lifetime. Already the group had met several times for a meal and a drink together.
Sam was great ambassador for Rotary and we wish him well for the future.