Youth Services

Overview
 

After a continuous participation since 1976 in the District’s International Youth Exchangeprogram, Picton Rotary has refocused its youth programming on more local efforts. As soon as Covid restrictions permit, we hope to send a PECI student to Camp Kawartha near Peterborough for a weekend experience which will involve 50 young people -indigenous and non­ indigenous - to interact and learn from each other in a new program which has been developed in conjunction with Honouring Indigenous People (HIP).

Annually, we fund the participation of a Prince Edward Collegiate Institute (PECI) student in the Adventures in Citizenship program run by the Ottawa Rotary Club. Also, we send a post secondary student from PECI to Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (a week-long leadership course run by District 7070 in Toronto).

Plaques to a graduating local Grade 8 students who have provided "service to school and community" are given by our club in every elementary school in Prince Edward County. 

We also help distribute five $1000 awards to PECI graduating students and three $250 bursaries to Loyalist College with funds from the Stark Family Foundation. From our own budget, we have been awarding three $200 awards to PECI students and are planning to replace those awards with $750 Rotary Volunteer Awards which will be awarded to two graduating PECI students. As part of those Awards, the student will be then required to designate an organization of his or her choice to receive $250 of the award to encourage a sense of philanthropy.

When Covid restrictions permit, we will resume a reading program at the Mohawk School whereby a small group of Rotarians attends weekly to help their students with their reading.

Currently, we are proposing to help the HUB Child Care Centre make their outdoor education programme for children under the age of 12 more rewarding by enhancing the Whattam Memorial Walkway in the Macaulay Park Conservation Area. This project is being undertaken in cooperation with the club' s Environmental Sub Committee and hopefully will involve youth from the ROC in tree planting and other activities.