At our 17th October meeting we heard from Luke Barclay a pupil and prefect at Waid Academy, Anstruther.

Luke came to speak about his experiences at this years RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) camp - his attendance at which had been supported by our club.

This annual event takes place at the Abernethy Centre, Nethy Bridg and it offers many team activities – rock climbing, raft building, gorge walking, off road cycling and many more. Luke said there was even the option of a blindfold rock climb! – but all aimed at team building, developing self confidence and inter personal skills. Some 30 young people attended the week long camp with different activities each day for teams of eight.

Luke, whose hobbies include rugby, rock climbing and kick boxing, has the ambition to pursue a career as an engineer and hopes to be able to do this within the RAF. He was enthusiastic about the RYLA event and spoke of the challenges he was presented with and the value he discovered in overcoming failures, in acquiring new skills, discovering abilities he didn’t know he had and, particularly, the experience of learning how to organise a team of people.

We were entertained with a slide show of photographs from the RYLA camp – the gorge and rock faces awesome!

Perhaps the most rewarding comment was when Luke spoke of his journeys to and from Nethy Bridge. On the way there the coach was silent and full of strangers – on the way back the silence replaced by laughter and chat – now a group of firm friends.

Difficult to think of a better outcome!