President's Corner

 

My name is David Z. Edelstein, and I am honored to serve as President of the Rotaract Club of Leadership & Service (RCLS). I am a professional broadcaster as a Sports Anchor/Reporter at WJTV-TV in Jackson, MS, where I cover high school, college and professional sports. I am also a writer, instructor, producer and web developer. 

 

I first heard about Rotary when I was a freshman in high school. I was a member of the Paramus High School student government, and we were asked to volunteer at PHS to help with the Paramus Rotary Pasta Dinner. I had also been familiar with the Rotary Peace Park, which is located across the street from PHS, behind the Paramus Public Library. It seemed like so many of the good people I knew in the Paramus community were Rotarians! As a high school junior in 2014, I was nominated, interviewed and then selected by the Paramus Rotary Club to attend RYLA. RYLA had an immediate and profound impact on who I was as a person and how I lived my life. RYLA propelled me in so many positive directions and showed me that there are people, teams and communities out there all over New Jersey and all over the world that are dedicated to Service Above Self, making the world a better place for everyone. I was fortunate to receive the Certificate of Multicultural Peace and Understanding in recognition of my entry into the Paramus Rotary poetry contest. I am grateful to have later received a four-year Paramus Rotary scholarship that helped fund my education at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and Syracuse University. I helped found the Rotaract Club of Syracuse University in 2018, and I served as the Club's Vice President in its first full year.

 

In 2016, I had the incredible opportunity to return to RYLA in New Jersey as a leader and organizer for RYLA 7490. In January of 2020, our Team of volunteers decided to officially join the organization we are so passionate about, so we founded and chartered RCLS and all became Rotaractors. Rotary later elevated Rotaractors to the same status as Rotarians (no longer a youth program). Our RCLS mission is to run leadership programs, including our keystone RYLA Program. This worked out well when the unexpected COVID-19 pandemic forced all in-person programs to be canceled, and our Club created an interactive, online Program at RYLAUniversity.com that was used as the official RYLA program for Districts and participants in Seattle, Vancouver, Nebraska, Texas, Florida, Israel and more from 2020, 2021 and beyond. (You can go to the website and complete the course right now!)

 

From 2023 to present, we have been ecstatic to lead our Program in person once again and to partner with both Districts 7475 and 7490 to mentor the youth in our communities.

 

Additionally, I have been able to see the reach of Rotary through my in-person and virtual travels around the country. I have visited and helped lead RYLA 5330 in California,  and RYLA 6820 in Mississippi, where I currently work as a television sports broadcaster. I have been a guest speaker for RYLA in Hawaii, New Mexico and Nebraska. I have met so many great Rotarians around the world, from Australia to Russia to India to Zimbabwe. This inspires me to keep building this community and sharing the mission and vision and values of Rotary with others.

 

As the Club was still in its forming stages, we were facing a global pandemic that was uprooting any sense of normalcy anyone alive had ever experienced. I asked my Team, despite the challenges, will we do nothing, or will we do something? To this day it gives me chills to think about how our Team came together to use our resources and adapt to unprecedented change to continue on our mission and keep the Program alive. It is an honor, a privilege and a pleasure each and every day to serve alongside such committed, intelligent, creative human beings. Yes, I may have the title of "President" and "Program Director," yet I see those simply as job descriptions; they are a quick way to explain the specific responsibilities I have agreed to undertake to ensure the success of this Team and this Program. The best part is we are ALL Servant Leaders. We all have a role to play here. We are better because we are together. My job as Program Director and Club President is not to be "at the top," telling people what to do; my job as Program Director and Club President is to be at the bottom, a strong base and foundation, supporting my Team as We Rise, Together.

 

This Team is a family. We are all equally vital to the success and longevity of what we are doing. This is a lot of work, but it doesn't feel like work. This is something we are passionate about. When new members join our Team, they are equal family members right away. Are we perfect? Absolutely not. But the reason we are successful is because of the care we have for each other and the collaborative methods we have in place for sharing ideas, determining courses of action and achieving our dreams, together.