Student Tells of Thailand Trip

OPENING: Ray Robinson led the SGR Choir in a spirited rendition of “I’m Looking Over A 4-Leaf Clover” Debbie Justice led members in a recitation of the Rotary 4-Way Test. Stan Gubler invited members to follow him in the Pledge of Allegiance. Quinn Hadley asked for the blessings of heaven on the meeting and the meal. June McAfee conducted a lucrative Horseplay while Nancy Neff collected the filthy lucre on behalf of this year’s dictionary project.

Nick Lang introduced Lauren Christensen, this year’s president of Rotaract at Dixie State College.

PROGRAM: Vayla Mitchell, a student at Dixie State College, has just returned from two weeks in Thailand with YouthLINC. With a mission to “create lifetime humanitarians” YouthLINC recruits students 16-24 for local and international service in such faraway places as Mexico, Kenya, Peru, Thailand and most recently in Cambodia.

Locally, Vayla volunteered at Kolob Care Center where she met and was befriended by an elderly resident who has now become one of her dearest friends. A member of YouthLINC’s medical committee, Vayla secured 318 toothbrushes, 237 tubes of toothpaste and 144 containers of floss to take to Thailand. In this Asian country, Vayla and 40+ other young people installed two drainage systems for sinks and toilets. The young humanitarians put in a walkway which required 70 batches of cement they mixed themselves in a wheelbarrow. They also installed sinks, hygiene kits, clothes and shoes collected before the trip, created a playground for Thai children, taught English, distributed school supplies, taught dental hygiene, and organized a carnival for the children.

Vayla’s impression of Thailand? “It was hot and humid, but the children are respectful, disciplined, loving and giving. I want to be them.”