Kalina Kontsas is from Saco, Maine. She went to RYLA in June of 2022, was sponsored by the Saco Bay Rotary Club, and graduated from Thornton Academy in 2024.
Every year for the past three years, I have chosen to take a week out of my everyday, crazy busy schedule, and go into the woods with no contact with the outside world and do community service for hours on end. I can easily say that the best choice I ever made was to apply to go to RYLA my sophomore year of highschool and then re-apply to work there as a facilitator the following two years.
My name is Kalina Kontsas, I am from Saco Maine and I have 3 years of service at RYLA. What is RYLA you may ask? RYLA is a once in a lifetime experience to disconnect from this world’s technology and craziness for a week and connect with your inner self, work on your leadership skills and make lifelong memories and friends.
As a camper here at RYLA, I was so nervous going into the experience. I had never been at a sleep away camp and had no idea what to expect. My guidance counselor had just told me that it was a leadership camp that would look good on a college or job application, and that I would be in the woods for 4 days straight without being able to have my phone. As a sophomore, you feel a sort of “attachment” to your phone and honestly that was the scariest part for me, yet when I got to Camp Hinds I didn’t give my phone a second thought until I had gotten home, Even then, I felt like I didn’t even need to use my phone because at RYLA I realized how rich conversations can truly be when you are talking face to face and form a healthy, nurturing friendship where you both support each other in becoming a better person.
On the last day of camp as a camper, you write yourself something called a “Solo”, which is a letter mailed to you 6 months after camp. In my letter, I reflected on how good it was to be away from my home issues, friend group drama and my phone in general. I had been in an extremely bad place mentally when I went into RYLA June of 2022, but when I came out, my own mom noticed a change in my demeanor. When I received that letter 6 months later, I cried and cried until I couldn’t anymore because I could see myself growing in every sentence I wrote down. That is the moment I knew I needed to apply to work at RYLA and since that moment I have never been the same. RYLA changed my life, it changed who I am as a person, who I want to be growing up and how I want to treat others. Every time I get to be with my RYLA family, I feel the spirit of RYLA lighting up inside of me. If I could tell one thing to any sophomore I meet, it would be to tell them to apply to RYLA!!!!!!