At its meeting of 19th November Anstruther Rotary Club was delighted to welcome Rebecca Forsyth and Lois MacKay, 6th year students at Waid Academy. Both had been sponsored to attend the week-long Rotary Youth Leadership Award course at the Abernethy Centre, Nethy Bridge in July and had returned report on their experiences.

Lois and Rebecca treated the club to an outstanding talk, illustrated with an excellent video – although it must be said one or two in the audience looked slightly pale at the sight of some of the challenges!

About 80 girls attended the event, which aims to encourage team building, self-confidence and leadership skills. The course is based around outdoor events including hill walking, rock climbing, gorge walking, mountain biking, canoeing and raft building. All the events are challenging – 6 miles in a canoe, 10 miles to the top of the Cairngorms, 15 miles on a mountain bike and some impressive (scary!) rough water and abseiling too!

The week is spent in teams of 8 to 10 and everyone has the opportunity to lead. Lois and Rebecca both commented on how valuable this had been to them – the challenge of needing to mix with everyone in order to work together to achieve the team’s aim. Especially they proved that they could step up to a challenge and succeed. Words like ‘teamwork’ and ‘trust’ in overcoming fears were mentioned many times.

With the day’s challenges over, it was clear that there was also much fun and laughter, with singing, games and a variety of social events.  Many friendships were made in a group that started the week as strangers.       

Following questions club president Roderick Skinner presented certificates of achievement to Lois and Rebecca, together with warm congratulation and thanks for being such outstanding representatives of the club and of their school. The picture shows them with their certificates.

More about the centre is at (http://www.abernethy.org.uk/nethybridge)and about RYLA at (http://www.rotaryribi.org/districts/page.php?PgID=257210&DistrictNo=1010)