The week of October including the 7th is Rotary Reconnect Week on the Rotary calendar.
Rotary East Coast Bays kicked the week off in style with a Zoom meeting where it caught up with past inbound Rotary Youth Exchange (RYE) students who were hosted by the club.
See how many came online...

 
During Rotary Reconnect week clubs are encouraged to re-connect with people they have sponsored on a Rotary programme.  Rotary East Coast Bays reached out to those they had hosted as inbound Rotary Exchange students for a year.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The students shared video messages from around the world, Finland, France, Chile, USA, Switzerland, Denmark and Cambodia.  The club was fortunate enough to have two past RYE, Darius from Austria and Amir from Switzerland, actually join in on the Zoom meeting.
 
Messages were sent from: (anti-clockwise from top of image)
  • Nikki Bandak – USA (2009-2012)
  • Robin (Rob) Guezzenec – France (2010-2011)
  • Lotta Moisala-Julkunen – Finland (2011-2012)
  • Ignacio Concha – Chile (2015-2016)
  • Gustav Anderson – Denmark (2014-2015)
  • Tola Sorn - Cambodia (2016-2017)
  • Lily Lay – Cambodia (2017-2018)
  • Julie Dauxais – France (2017-2018)
  • Darius Lehmann - Switzerland (2018-2019)
  • Amir Bader - Austria (2013-2014)
Each one, without exception, mentioned how much they got out of their exchange experience and how much they miss New Zealand.
 
Rotary East Coast Bays members are very proud supporters of the Rotary Youth Exchange programme, and are missing not having a student with the club, so they really appreciated the opportunity to hear what everyone was doing now and how Rotary helped them.
 
Rotary invites former Rotaractors, Interactors, Rotary Peace Fellows, Rotary Scholars, Youth Exchange students, and other Rotary program alumni to renew their connection to Rotary.
 
Get in touch with your sponsoring club or via this website to let us know what you are doing now and tell us how Rotary has helped you on the journey.