In March of 2020, just before New York State was shut down for 3 months due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, Lake George Rotary held its first “Leader in Me” banquet. The banquet honored students involved in Rotary’s Interact Club and the RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Award) program. It was a huge success with 13 Interact members attending and all 4 RYLA students.
Mr. Conway, the Elementary Principal, gave some background on the Leader in Me curriculum followed in K-6 and then Mr. Cocozza finished up with how it segues to the Jr./Sr. High School. Lake George Rotary’s involvement with these students begins when they are in 3rd grade and receive real book dictionaries from us. It continues in 5th grade when they receive thesauruses.
In 7th grade, the students can join Interact Club, a student version of Rotary with a mission to provide both local community and international service. As juniors, the students can further their leadership skills by taking part in the district-wide program known as RYLA.
The Leader in Me banquet was such a success, we hope to be able to bring it back in 2021.