John Souvage, a member of the RC of Burlington Central, has been involved with the Rotary Leadership program for a number of years. He cited that the program is the “best kept secret” in the district. Unlike RYLA, this camp is unique to our district in that, it is offered to exceptional students attending high school and is created, developed and run by multiple clubs.  

The camp has been in operation for 17 years. Initially, it targeted participants from the 8 Burlington High schools but has now expanded to schools including all Halton secondary schools and some in Peel and outlying areas. Rotary exchange students are also invited to participate.

The program runs for 3 days in Camp Northland and offers “experiential learning” rather than lectures. The program is modeled after corporate training provided to senior executives at companies such as IBM and HP.

The objective is to put together natural leaders, with no “followers in attendance”, the natural  leadership charisma will no longer be sufficient to sway peers and they are faced with having to discover other “leadership” skills such as listening and compromise. This is often the first time these students have been challenged, as the playing field is at the same level. The participants are presented with a series of activities where they need to learn to work together to accomplish the tasks set out for them.

Danial Ahmed, a previous participant in the camp, explained the positive experience he had and the benefits he gained personally through his experience at the camp. Specifically, he said he gained new skills and learned to help in his own special way. Through the camp, he learned to trust the abilities of others. As a result of attending the camp, Danial has started a new Interact club at his school, Robert Bateman.

One of the main objectives of the Camp is to provide opportunities for youth to develop leaderships skills for their futures, whether they become Managers, Politicians, activists or future Rotarians. As the camp includes our own Interact students, it reinforces and rewards their activities. By exposure to the camp, it also increases the student’s knowledge of Rotary and perhaps enables them to start their own Interact club, as was the case with Danial.

You can now search for a Rotary club with RI's free mobile app. In the Apple app store and Android market, it's called the Rotary Club Locator from Rotary International. The app also will soon be offered for BlackBerry phones.

The Rotary Club Locator app helps you find a Rotary club meeting when you're on the go.

·       The "Near Me" search locates clubs within a physical radius of 100 miles. (Note: Actual driving distances may be further.)

·       A keyword search for clubs. This search looks for the keyword in either the club name or meeting location address. This is useful for finding clubs that are outside of the 100-mile radius from your current location.

·       A map showing a club's location and driving directions

·       The ability to save search results to a list of favorite clubs

·       The ability to add a club to your phone's contact list

·       The club's website and primary phone number, if available

·       A search function to find clubs by district

To view club officer contact information, you must login into the app with your RI Member Access login information

October 27, 2011

A local Rotary club is spearheading a fundraiser to benefit food banks in Hamilton.

Congratulations to Mike Cochrane who won the Super Early Bird prize of a trip for four, this December to Ponte Vedra Florida to play TPC Sawgrass in the Golf Gives Back Golf and Travel Lottery.  The winning ticket was sold by one of our charity partners, Rotary Burlington Music Festival. 

Our Early Bird post Christmas draw is coming up in January.  A trip for four to Las Vegas for a golf and show package awaits the winner!  Wouldn’t a ticket be an ideal stocking stuffer this Christmas?  Over 150 golf and travel prizes remain for our main draw!

Please visit www.golfgivesback.org for further information.

Win Great Golf Prizes, including a trip for 4 to  TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Florida.  First earlybird draw Sept 8th 2011. Trip for 4 to Las Vegas draw date Jan 5th 2012. Grand Prize #1 trip for 4 to Ireland draw date March 4 2012. Grand Prize #2 trip for 2 to BC draw date March 4 2012. Grand Prize #3 trip for 2 to Chicago draw date March 4 2012 and 150 other golf prizes to be drawn March 4 2012.