Michelle Candland

Last weekend culminated a year of planning, working, organizing and sacrificing by many people in order to make a 2-½ day event come to life. Rotary Club 33 has been hosting 80-90 high school juniors for the past 35 years for lunch, then busing them to the mountains for two days of speakers, presentations, breakout sessions, entertainment, a talent show, outdoor recreation, all topped off with a competition between teams of nine students each – it’s called Camp Enterprise. They not only came up with their own unique business but they learned how to develop a business plan, create a financial projection, select a management team and dream up a marketing strategy. I have been fortunate enough to be a part of this effort for many years and as difficult as it may seem, it just keeps getting better. The students are smart, creative, motivated and quickly acclimate to their task at hand. The goal is to help students understand the positive side of business, help them to appreciate the work that is required to start and operate a business and build the confidence they will need to be the entrepreneurs of tomorrow. Those of us who have had the privilege of working on this committee over the years have truly been the winners; we have all learned something new, been encouraged by the potential of those who hold our future in their hands, enjoyed the fellowship of our Rotarian friends and know in our hearts that we’ve made a difference in the lives of the students who came to camp. Some of the students have never been away from home, some are from exclusive private schools, some are from low income urban schools and some are nervous or apprehensive. All are strangers when they arrive yet when they board the buses to head home, there is seldom a dry eye to be found. Hugs are exchanged along with email addresses, telephone numbers and promises to stay in touch. I’ll take a breather for a week or two and then it’s time to get back to the drawing board and begin planning for next year’s camp – I can’t wait!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 20th, 2010 at 5:22 pm and is filed under Common Threads. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.