Mission Statement
Our mission is to provide leadership development opportunities while engaging youth in Rotary’s motto, Service Above Self, both locally and internationally.
2022-23 YES Team members:
 
2022-23 YES team members back row: Liam Sanderson, Gigi Searle, Lily Cleaver, Jasmin Kaur, Charlie Pearson. Front Row: Rachel Hankey, Emma Clark,  Tania Corona-Lemus, Hanna, Suhani Karwal.
 
Applications for the 2023-24 YES teams are now open! These teams will begin meeting next October. 
Snohomish County Juniors
If you are entering your Junior (11th) year in high school, live in Snohomish County, and are interested in joining a YES team with an international trip to Guatemala we want you! Please complete and submit an application. 
 
Whatcom, Island, and Skagit County Juniors
If you are entering your Junior (11th) year in high school, live in Skagit, Island, or Whatcom counties, and are interested in a fantastic opportunity culminating in a trip to Honduras, please complete and submit an application by Sept. 16th. 
 
British Columbia Juniors
If you are entering your Junior (11th) year in high school and live in lower British Columbia please complete and submit an application. You will join a YES team of other British Columbia students. BRITISH COLUMBIA STUDENTS PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL YES FEES ARE IN UNITED STATES DOLLARS.
 
The application link for all teams is at the top of the page. If you have any problems with the application please email rogerlkelley@gmail.com
 
YES PROGRAM COVID 19 PROTOCOLS
 
All YES team members (students and adults) must be fully vaccinated for COVID -19 before the first YES team meeting. Please bring your vaccination card to the first meeting. 
 
The YES program will adhere to all Washington State COVID-19 masking requirements. Canadian students will follow the British Columbia covid protocol. This means that if Washington State requires masks for YES activities, masks must be worn (for U.S. students). 
 
YES program participants are required to follow all country-specific (either Honduras or Guatemala) Covid 19 protocols. 
YES Changes Many Lives
The Rotary Youth Engaged in Service Program (YES) provides unique local and international service opportunities to 
grade 11 high school students.   
  • Local community organizations receive hundreds of volunteer hours as each student commits to a minimum of eighty hours of meaningful service during the school year. 
  • Villagers at international service sites are provided with much needed assistance and develop positive relationships with Americans and Canadians. 
  • Students experience a culture quite unlike their own, causing them to reevaluate their priorities and goals. 
  • Rotarians become more enthusiastic about fundraising when they learn of the significant impact of their efforts.
Read more...
YES Program Announcement
 
High school students throughout Rotary District 5050 have the opportunity to experience the joy of serving others by volunteering in their local community and participating in an international humanitarian service project. Students attend monthly leadership training meetings and contribute 80 hours of local volunteer service during their Junior Year--Grade 11. Each student is responsible for $1,500 (in United States Dollars) of the program cost. If you are interested in finding new meaning and direction for your life by assisting local community organizations, improving the conditions of the poorest of the poor in remote regions of the world, and are selected for a YES team, you agree to:
  1. Pay the program fee of $1,500 (in United States dollars). Rotary mentors assist in fundraising to meet this goal.
  2. Log in 80 hours of volunteer community service from October to May.
  3. Participate in a monthly team meeting, the weekend team building retreat, and the Rotary Youth Adventures in Leadership (YAIL) weekend.
  4. Assist with program fundraisers.
  5. Obtain a passport and recommended immunizations at your own expense.
  6. Bring enough money to pay for personal expenses such as some meals and souvenirs

The YES program is now open for any students who will be Juniors (11th year) in 2023-2024 school year.                                          
                     For more information read this brochure. 

Cultural Awareness Through Volunteering
 
Before my high school career, I had never volunteered at a primary site, never had the notion to serve at a single institution, where I doubted the difference I could make and was daunted by the time commitment.  However, a shift occurred in me.  I realized the severity of my ignorance as I was accepted into the Youth Engaged in Service program, which taught me to think in terms of "service above self."
 
Volunteering has rendered me culturally aware and has allowed me to grow as a person, especially while volunteering at Skagit Literacy in Westview Elementary School.  There I assist children with homework and endeavor to instill in them a love of reading while developing their English.  The goal of Skagit Literacy is self-sufficiency, the ability to navigate the English-speaking United States, hardly a conciliatory nation.  It was imperative for me to pause and contemplate the question:  Am I self0sufficient?  The irony of the situation was degrading:  How could I teach self-sufficiency when I was not self-sufficient myself?  I'm embarrassngly poor with directions, my mother still makes me three hot meals a day, and I am utterly disorganized.  The children I tutor while their parents are taking English classes may fail in school, but can cook for themselves.  They have almost no awareness of the war waging in Iraq and Afghanistan or other foreign affirs but have already acquired street smarts and a fairly broad knowledge of the "cholos" who inflicdt local havoc.
 
We live in a world based entirely on perceptions, and volunteering allows us to surmount these social barriers and learn from one another:  I encourage wscholastic achievement and reading while they teach me their cultural perspective and flaunt their primary language.  Spanish, the language in which their fluency I envy.  
 
Volunteerism is the epitome of the human race's willingness to unite against adversity, to work not through self-interest, but for the bettement of the world, and to see our philanthropic labors come to fruition.  It is through volunteerism that I have realized our purpose.
 
I want to thank the Youth Engaged in Service program for the life experience it has given me, the realizations it has allowed me to come to, and the opportunities it has created.  I am so grateful for the discovery of transcendence and purpose in volunteering at a primary site, something I will continue throughout my life.
 
McKenzie Templeton