“RYLA Plus”

A RYLA Expansion for a Special Needs Population

Karen Loeb -August 12, 2011

A few months ago, I was contacted by the CEO of Easter Seals to discuss potential support the Rotary Club of Denver Southeast might lend to their efforts to have best-in-class facilities at their camp, just off I-70 at the Morrison exit, in Colorado. As I learned more about the camp itself, I realized that this organization was trying to help children with physical and cognitive challenges feel more independent, empowered, and adaptable to challenges they face, in addition to having fun in the mountains of Colorado. This struck me as quite similar to the outstanding leadership training and development we offer in our RYLA program, which led to the idea of adapting and expanding our excellent RYLA program to complement the kind of programming Easter Seals offers this group of challenged children. I thought a program like this could be called “RYLA Plus,” similar in concept to the Special Olympics, where the format of the Olympics is adapted to the physical and especially mental disabilities of the participants. I envisioned starting with those who had only physical and/or emotional problems, with perhaps building programs in the future for those with cognitive problems, much like the Rotary Community Clubs do (e.g., Colorado Springs). This idea was added to the original facilities’ improvement request that our club is considering for a Signature project (and where my co-sponsor is Susan Elliott), which is a natural fit, given the engagement of our club in RYLA activities in the past.

Easter Seals has also shown strong interest in the proposed idea. The benefit of partnering with Easter Seals for “RYLA Plus” is that they already have a camp equipped to handle physical disabilities well. They have a similar mission in helping these campers have more independence and feelings of self-empowerment, mostly through the camp’s outdoor activities. They have a counselor staff equipped to deal with the physical infirmities, and they have knowledge of teenage campers who could benefit from a RYLA experience as an expansion of the leadership training they already offer. The idea is to adapt the RYLA programming as appropriate, add RYLA-experienced counselors to this camp week (campers typically have two counselors anyway), and use their facilities to host the camp. In the regular Easter Seals camp, it costs about $1200 per camper to provide all the services, including medical staff and administrators. I envision a program of 30-40 campers initially to pilot this program. Different Rotary clubs could sponsor campers, as they do now for RYLA. Much of the administrative overhead would be handled by Easter Seals. Rotarians would also have the opportunity to serve as senior counselors and be housed in the conference facilities on premises. The camp has a zip-line, horse stable, swimming pool with ramp, one-hole golf course, and three platform-accessible tents for an outdoor camping experience to complement any of the speaker sessions. They have a covered pavilion for all-camp assemblies.

One of my more interesting discoveries in exploring this idea was learning that the founder of Easter Seals (1919), Edgar Allen, was a prominent Rotarian in Elyria, Ohio. He was also a close friend of Paul Harris, who was a founding member of the National Society for Crippled Children (former name of Easter Seals). Rotary International became a major contributor to this charity, and, in 1923, RI considered making this organization the sole benefactor of RI charitable services (fell shy by 2 votes!). As Rotary expanded, so did the Easter Seal organization, as their efforts were literally joined at the hip. Observations from a recent trip to the camp in Colorado confirmed that the benefits extend far beyond just the campers, but include the counselors and staff, nurturing the “Rotary heart” and our service above self mission.