As you and your club are making plans and moving forward into the new Rotary year, we hope you will save a spot in your lineup for RYLA. If you’ve never heard of RYLA, here’s a quick introduction:

Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) is an intensive training program that targets young adults, ages 15-18, to further develop character and leadership skills and learn about Rotary.  RYLA in District 6900 is a 5-day summer camp experience.

We have the dates all set – June 6-10, 2026 – and the RYLA staff is already hard at work making plans. Our goal is to fill every available spot in the camp so this year we are starting the process sooner in hopes of reaching everyone in plenty of time.

RYLA participants are nominated by local Rotary clubs, and the clubs are responsible for all expenses. For these young adults, RYLA offers the opportunity to build self-confidence, gain exposure to a variety of issues and people, meet active community leaders, and learn valuable information and career skills.

RYLA also benefits Rotarians by giving them the opportunity to mentor promising young leaders serving their own communities and beyond. Rotarians serve as resources for participants on the path to becoming professional and community leaders. In turn, RYLA can bring new energy to a Rotary club and district, inspire ideas for service, increase support of community service projects, and develop future Rotarians.

We can change the lives of 144 students at RYLA and create a positive impact on 144 homes, schools, and communities. To that end, we hope that every club in District 6900 will choose to participate in RYLA this year. You will be hearing from us soon with more details so we can get things rolling!