Rotary Spoke

July 21st was a warm summer day. Twenty-eight Rotarians gathered for a scrumptious meal of steak tips, green beans, mashed potatoes and salad. The meal and service provided by the staff of the Lexington Golf Club was outstanding. It was a pleasure revisiting our old meeting site. The pledge of allegiance was led by PP Spencer B, one verse of America by Charlie V and the Invocation by PP Don S. A moment of silence was held for the crash victims in the Ukraine. The welcome song was also lead by Charlie V and PP Dan O.

Acting President Dominic had happy dollars to celebrate 33 years of marital bliss. PP Ed G was happy to be turning 70. PP Jim S fined himself for going to Waxy’s for today’s meeting and finding himself all alone. PP Bill C had happy dollars for PP Nick C being insightful enough to ask the probing questions that led him to the real solution to Bill’s water problems. Finally, I had happy dollars for having my daughter as a guest and speaker today and finally being able to find out what she did at RYLA.

Raffle donations were made by Lexington Ace Hardware, Arlex Oil, Walpole Cooperative Bank and PP Doug H and were won by Jade Smith. Good thing I drove the large car.

Our speaker was Jade Smith. Jade is a lifelong resident of Lexington who is entering her senior year at Lexington High School. In addition to her academic load at LHS, she is a captain of the varsity volleyball team and her club volleyball team and a 3rd degree black belt student in Alan Azoff’s dojo. In her search for opportunities to improve her leadership skills, she applied for the RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Award) program and our club was kind enough to sponsor her.

Her RYLA experience was a 3-day program at Camp Rotary in Boxford. The district hosts the program and all clubs are encouraged to sponsor a high school sophomore or junior student. The program is led by Rotarians and graduates of the RYLA program. When the students arrive they are divided into families and do a lot of their activities as family units. The students are challenged throughout the day with activities at require both physical and mental activity.

Jade described the various rope courses that they had to complete and how they had to work with partners to complete the courses. While physical prowess was certainly helpful, creative thinking was required in order for the partners to figure out how to finish the tasks. Another activity was to complete a puzzle after each person was shown their puzzle piece and they had to describe their piece to other team members to determine where each piece would ultimately be placed.

The activity that had the greatest impact on Jade was the city building simulation. Groups were divided into 4 teams, the chocolates, mint chips, strawberries and vanillas. Each was placed in equally sized squares, marked off with masking tape. What was not equal was the size of the groups, the resources available to the groups and how authorities treated members of the groups. The chocolates had the fewest members, greatest number of resources and preferential treatment by the authorities. They were told that the strawberries and vanillas were dangerous, not to interact with them and that the police would protect them. Given their advantages, they were able to build a beautiful 3 dimensional city out of their colored construction paper and marked and enjoyed their experience. On the other end of the spectrum, the vanillas had so many people, they barely fit into their square, and they had almost no money, one yellow marker and 1 piece of construction paper to build their city. Jade was a strawberry. When she went to the building commission to get a permit to build a school, they denied the permit and after much argument on her part, they granted her permission to build an outhouse. When she went to pay, they accused her of trying to bribe them and sent her to jail. By the end of the simulation, they were only able to build an outhouse and a tenement. The vanillas, in frustration stormed the building commission demanding equal treatment and were thrown in jail. Realizing that there was more room in jail, the vanillas took turns getting thrown in jail.

During the debriefing, the chocolates were surprised to find out how the vanillas and strawberries were being treated and Jade got a feel for what it is like to be disenfranchised. Living in Lexington, a town of largely chocolates and mint chips, she hadn’t felt that type of discrimination before. She found it an eye opening experience.

In conclusion, she felt that the experience changed her and made her a more effective leader. She thanked the club for sponsoring her and would encourage others to apply for the program.

The 50:50 raffle was for $80 and was won by PP Jim F

The proud father, PP FS