OKEHAMPTON Rotary Club has been presented with a regional Rotary award for its work with young people.

President of Rotary in Great Britain and Ireland Debbie Hodge presented Okehampton branch president Mike Davies with the ‘youth award’ at a regional Rotary conference over the weekend of March 9 and 10.

Members of 84 Rotary clubs across Devon and Cornwall attended the conference at the Crowne Plaza in Plymouth on the theme of ‘All at Sea’.

Mike said: ‘All Rotary clubs do a lot to serve their local community and most are heavily involved with youth work. Although the Okehampton club does a lot in the area of youth activities I was quite surprised when Okehampton Rotary was presented with the award.

‘I would like to thank our local Rotarians for all their hard work which has been recognised at the regional level.’

The Rotary Club of Okehampton is each year involved in organising a primary school photography competition, a primary school gardening competition and a primary schools quiz involving 14 schools.

The Okehampton Rotary branch has taken part in the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) for the past 18 years, offering a residential outdoor pursuits course for 16 to 18 year olds every year at Adventure Okehampton on the edge of Dartmoor. This offers the chance for youngsters to develop teamwork, leadership, communication and problem solving.

The Rotary club also runs a week-long non-residential course for 11-12 year olds who have just completed Year 7 at Okehampton College.

The Adventure 7 week at the start of the summer holidays gets the students involved in outdoor activities including being up on the moor, bike riding, canoeing, gorge scrambling, rock climbing and other outdoor activities. It is also held at Adventure Okehampton.