Guest speakers inspire at Rotary meeting A RYLA awardee and a PDG gave inspiring speeches at the meeting of RC Leesville as they recalled how their Rotary activities taught them important lessons in life.

The Leesville Rotary Club (Los Angeles, US – D 6190) met on Tuesday night and ‘Be the Inspiration’ was the theme of the meeting.

The club invited two guest speakers to come and speak.

Lara Baker and Pamela Stewart both spoke at the meeting on different ways the Rotary Club organisation has helped to inspire them.

The Leesville Rotary Club awarded Baker the Rotary Youth Leadership Award (RYLA) and recognised her for her achievements during the meeting.

Baker recently attended the RYLA camp and she spoke about the inspiring and unforgettable experience she had there, “at the end, we didn’t want to leave.”

She went on to tell of the important life lessons she learned from the camp.

“At RYLA, one of the most important things I learned is that it is very important to be able to communicate and how that affects different aspects of life,” Baker said.

“If you can’t be a good communicator, you can’t be an effective leader.”

The camp is a youth camp that focus on character and team-building skills for students in their Junior or Senior year of high school.

To attend the camp, students are chosen and sponsored by their local Rotary clubs throughout each district.

Baker is a senior at Anacoco High School.

Stewart is the 6190 Past District Governor and was invited to speak by the club.

She shared what inspired her as a Rotarian.

“We look for the needs in our community and then we look for the ways to meet those needs.” Stewart said.

Stewart is a member of the Lincoln Rotary Club out of Ruston.

She also spoke about the Lincoln Rotary Club’s weekend meal programme for elementary schools around Lincoln Parish.

The service project provides meals to students identified to be at risk for limited access to nutritional meals on the weekend.

The project has been ongoing for several years and has grown tremendously through partnerships between the Lincoln Rotary Club and other service organisations and churches.

The Leesville Rotary Club meets again next Tuesday, July 17.

The current District Governor Cecil Campbell will be speaking at the meeting.

Source: Leesville Daily Leader