The annual Rotary Youth Leadership Award conference was held at Camp Pine Rock in Prescott from Jan. 12 to 15 as over 200 high school students from across Northern Arizona, including 21 participants from Sedona Red Rock High School, spent their Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend building their leadership skills. The program was hosted by Rotary District 5495.
“RYLA is dedicated to empowering young individuals by cultivating leadership skills, instilling self-confidence, and nurturing a commitment to community service,” the Rotary Club of Sedona Village stated in a press release. “The program features a variety of seminars, workshops and teambuilding exercises, providing participants with opportunities to interact with peers, mentors and community leaders alike.”
This year’s cohort of SRRHS participants included Diana Alvarez Araiza, Victoria Arenas, Glenna Barnes, Brianna Burch, Brittney Carr, Gabi Curi, Aubrie Doyle, Elliot Fox, Diana Garcia, Clay Hansbraugh, Jaden Kuhn, Jackie Kwitkin, Karol Laija, Katrina Le, Angelo Matisko, Sheila Montes de Oca, Addie Moore, Evelyn Quidera, Iolani Sutton, Reymond Papas-Collins and Vincent Smith-Shayawatt.
“It’s hard to say who has more fun, the delegates from high schools all over the district, or the volunteers who come from a number of different clubs. But lives are certainly impacted in a positive way,” Rotary International District 5495 Governor Kevin Pitts wrote in a January update.
Garcia, Le, Matisko, Montes de Oca, Quidera and Smith-Shayawatt discussed their time at RYLA during the Rotary Club of Sedona Red Rocks meeting at the Sedona Public Library on Feb. 21. At the same meeting, the club presented SRRHS Interact Club advisor Teresa Lamparter with an honorary Paul Harris Fellow award in recognition of her contributions to students in Rotary youth programs. Rotary Club of Sedona Red Rocks Treasurer Donna Hawk mentioned that the club awards vocational scholarships to graduating seniors to assist them at a community college or trade school; since 2002, the club has contributed over $300,000 to youth initiatives.
“All of this is terrific, but if the club has no way to get this information into the hands of interested young people, it’s useless,” Hawk said. “Fortunately for Sedona, its Rotary clubs have a dedicated school district staff person [in Lamparter] that acts as a conduit between the clubs and students, distributing and collecting applications, organizing, guiding, and all done cheerfully and efficiently. This person also spends many after-work hours acting as SRRH’s Interact advisor. So it is with great pleasure that Sedona Red Rocks Rotary is awarding Teresa Lamparter with a Paul Harris Fellowship.”
“I’m very surprised, I had no idea,” Lamparter said after the meeting. “I love doing community services. This means a lot to me, because they’re recognizing that it matters, and that’s why I do Interact with the kids. I want them to get out and see how good it feels to help other people; it’s a good thing.”
“She goes to every single event and activity that the kids do,” SRRHS Site Council Chairwoman Sabra Sanzotta said. “She reaches out to all the organizations in town to ask what they may need help with, offering the Interact Club’s help at city events, food banks and Sedona Winds. She helps get kids to these events if they don’t have a ride. I was there recently when she came to a Valentine’s Day dance at Sedona Winds with the Interact kids. The residents were beaming and they said they would never miss a chance to come see the kids. [Lamparter] makes all of that possible. She gives kids the opportunity to find purpose and pride in community service. And all in addition to her full time job at school. She is amazing.”
“Amazing” is also how the RYLA participants commonly described the experience at the retreat, especially the more physical activities such as zip-lining or climbing the “Wall of Doom,” which challenged them to work as a team.
“Being more brave [through] expressing myself,” was how Garcia said RYLA changed her. “Like dancing in front of other girls — and doing the zip line.”
For Smith-Shayawatt, learning to be braver at RYLA came down to learning to talk to new people and learning how to answer unexpected questions
“Some of the things they asked us during that exercise was, ‘Have you ever been bullied or bullied someone before, or if you’ve ever been judge on your looks?’” Smith-Shayawatt said. “Because I’m taller and bigger than other people they may be scared [of me] but I feel like I’m a nice guy like a teddy bear.”
