Submitted by Thomas Riley
Today, as we recover from the devastation that the CoVid pandemic wrought on the world and on Rotary’s institutions, we are rebuilding Youth Exchange (RYE) as an important part of the fabric of Rotary.
This year we have 20 exchange students from other countries spending a year with host families in our District, and we have sent 6 abroad to spend a high school year with families in other countries.
Rotary’s is one of the most inexpensive and well run Youth Exchange programs in the world. Through regional and continental youth exchange networks, a high standard of support, including youth protection, has been attained and maintained in the program.
Youth Exchange has been a growing part of Rotary since 1927 when Sven Knudsen launched a youth exchange project between Denmark and France. In the same year, Danish and American students from Georgia engaged in an exchange.
The idea grew, and in the 1930’s there were numerous summer camp youth exchange activities between countries in Europe, With The USA and Canada, and with Australia.
Rotary was initially hesitant to take on Youth Exchange in a formal fashion, leaving it for individual clubs, but in 1928 at a separate meeting of the Board of Directors, it gave its hesitant support to the idea of exchanges. The growth of short and mid term exchanges ranging from a month or less to 6 months was geometric, and exchanges between clubs in different countries proliferated with very little standardization of policies governing them.
After WW II RYE flourished again, but it was not formalized as an official program of Rotary until the Council on Legislation legislated it in 1974, and it was formally begun in 1975.
Our District, then D58, participated from the beginning of the formalized program.
The Rotary Club of Duluth, ‘Club 25’, was one of the first clubs to participate in the new formalized RYE.
Judy Randall Rogers told me that she and the late Earl Rogers (who was a charter member of the Duluth Skyline Club) were the first hosts for the first student from the Duluth 25 Club in the new RYE. Their exchange student was Kaori Watanabe from Japan, now herself retired and a Grandmother. RYE in our District grew from there to a program that now hosts 20 students and used to send out a similar number. Across Rotary, more than 9000 students would enjoy a year long exchange before CoVid thanks to Rotarians across the world.
CoVid halted the program altogether, and as we are now once again hosting 20 students, we are happy to see it growing again as one of the signature programs of Rotary.