Pleasant Surprises

Several weeks ago older son Nate was selected by the school to be sent to The Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) Seminar at Erskine College this summer. The seminar lasts a week. The Indian Land Rotary is sponsoring him, paying his tuition and they have offered to drive him there. I'll probably take care of that.

I have not known anything at all about the rotary before. Our Indian Land rotary is a brand new group, chartering just a few months ago. Several of my friends are members. They are business and community leaders. Just by virtue of the fact that these wonderful people belong, I've considered that this must be a great organization.

I knew that each person who attends RYLA will receive a $1000 scholarship to Erskine.

I did not know that Nate would be presented this gift at the high school awards ceremony on Monday. In fact, I didn't know about the awards ceremony itself until that morning.

I walked into the ceremony and one of Nate's teachers said, "Oh hey! You just missed it?"

"Missed what?" I asked.

"They gave Nate his award." she replied.

"What award?" I asked. And she told me.

I asked Nate why he didn't tell me he would be presented that morning.

"I didn't know about it," he said. "I was sitting there, and [the counselor] started talking about the next award. He was describing it, and I thought, 'hmmm...that sounds like what I'm doing.' And then he called my name!"

Then last night the Indian Land guy called to ask if I'd received the packet of info about the conference. We talked for a few minutes and he said, "You know, there is a lot of scholarship money out there for these kids that go to RYLA. Full ride scholarships. And lots of them go to Erskine."

He also said the local rotary would like Nate to speak their breakfast when he comes back, and they would like him to help them start a youth chapter at the school next year.

This is so exciting! I can barely stand it!