YOUTH SERVICE
Partners in Community Service (PICS)
Seven local schools, public and private, are each given Rotary Club grants of $2,000 annually. With club members watching but not intervening, the student councils or leadership classes interview many community non-profits that help people locally and select a community charity to receive the donation after researching and evaluating their programs. These organizations send representatives to the schools to explain their programs and respond to questions from the students. The students then make their awards donations publicly at a special Rotary luncheon.
Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA)
Two high school junior girls and two junior boys are selected for the leadership skills they have exhibited and are given one-week scholarships near the end of the school year to attend Camp Royal, a Rotary-sponsored leadership camp in Northern California. There, under Rotary supervision, they meet and network with other gifted youths sponsored by many other Rotary clubs and hone their leadership skills in preparation for college and a life of contributions to society.
Rotary Interact Club
Interact high school students at Carmel High create and conduct their own community and international service projects. They are supported and coached by Rotary Club volunteers and high school and college staff liaisons. Cal State University at Monterey Bay has an active Interact club formed on the same basis.
Carmel High School and Carmel Valley High School Scholarships
Each year, several deserving senior Carmel High School students, based on their academic achievements, service to the community, leadership and grade-point averages, are granted Rotary scholarships of $1,000 each for expenses at community colleges or trade schools. This program began in 2009, and dozens of students have benefited. A student at Carmel Valley High School is also similarly honored.
Top 100 Honors Program
The top 25 student scholars in each of the four classes at Carmel High School are hosted at an annual special evening awards program each spring. Parents, grandparents, siblings, other relatives and friends attend. Awards for academic and other achievements are given out. An inspirational speaker addresses students and guests.
Free Vaccination Clinics
Working with the Monterey County Visiting Nurses Association, Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula and Tularcitos Middle School, the club sponsors three annual Free Flu and Covid Vaccination clinics for the Carmel Valley Community, students and adults alike.
Tony Willemsen Reading Project
Throughout his life past Carmel Valley Rotarian and former Rotary District Governor Tony Willemsen loved to help those less fortunate than himself. Fostering an early interest in reading among the youth of our community was one of the many ways he chose to do so. Through his generosity the Tony Willemsen Reading Project was born. Each year our Rotary Club donates to local area schools funds to promote reading skills in young students. With these basic reading and learning skills developed at an early age, students benefit from a lifelong tool that is the very basis of learning. With these skills their future education and the world of possibilities open to them become accessible. The added benefit is throughout the student's lifetime their choices will be better informed because of their ability to read and explore their options.
