Today's meeting was hosted by Dennis Brennan, who greeted arriving members at the tent in Cafe Spiga's parking lot. Small tables had been set up for dining -3 chairs per table. At the tent's entrance, we signed up for our choice of meal and then took our sign-up number with us to the table of our choice. Our members seemed to be comfortable with the arrangements made for our first in-person, mid-day meeting in a long time. Gina welcomed and served us.
Shortly after the pledge to the flag and Sal's thoughtful offering of Grace, Dennis introduced our guest speaker, Mattea Rabeno, a senior at PJ High School and super- RYLArian.
Mattea explained to her audience that she has been a member of the school's Interact Club since the 9th grade. When she was a sophomore, she was invited to consider joining RYLA and was pleased to be selected to be a part of the program. Mattea attended her 1st RYLA weekend that spring and was totally enthralled. She especially enjoyed the opportunity to train for further leadership opportunities when she attended the 2019 Spring Conference in Riverhead. That weekend, she joined around 500 youth, who learned more about being effective peer leaders.
They listened to many inspirational speakers and were appointed to teams that competed in a lot of interesting, enjoyable learning events. Coming from a class with only 100 classmates, Mattea noted that meeting so many new, different people was an especially great experience. She made many friends. Mattea counts herself to be most fortunate to have attended RYLA's summer camp. No phones were allowed. The attendees learned, among other things, how to really communicate (without the use of devices), and create goals. They participated in activities all day and night. The campers learned to use time wisely, and, importantly, how to pivot when original plans looked like they were falling through. Mattea enjoyed the camp experience so much that she chose to stay on for Week 3. She started up a project- a fundraiser for Hope House- and, upon her return home, sought help from adult advisors -Dennis and others. She learned that she needed to contact and work with her school principal, to advertise her event, etc. The fundraiser was originally to be a 5K run, but along came Covid-19 and the need to pivot. Mattea was forced to adapt to the "new normal", change her original plans, and create another type of fundraiser. During her junior year, Mattea was chosen to be a Facilitator during RYLA weekend. She is now a Senior Leader ( 1 of 9 chosen from an area stretching from Brooklyn to Montauk), who will help plan and direct the next RYLA weekend.
