The Saddle Lake Community Cadet Corps celebrated its year-end inspection last Wednesday night at the Saddle Lake Youth Centre, and was presented with a special accolade, a $10,000 donation from the RCMP foundation.
“It’s a program that right now is spreading through First Nations communities in Alberta,” said Saddle Lake Community Cadet Corps commanding officer and RCMP constable Robert Hynes. “I think there are close to about eight corps right now in the province. It just gives youth in First Nations reserves something to do. A lot of places, there’s not a lot of infrastructure for things to occupy kids.”
Saddle Lake Chief Eddy Makokis and council were present among dozens of proud parents and community members to watch the young cadets display the skills they have learned through a number of drill presentations, including marching drills, varying posture positions and verbal troop number commands.
“There are a lot of people that I want to thank here, especially the RCMP who started this program three years ago,” Makokis said. “I want to thank all these young kids for being here, and for every week coming here and participating . . . It shows that by coming together we can support each other. We can do a lot of things within our community.”
Cst. Hynes explained that as an RCMP officer, he feels it is very important to bridge the gap between law enforcement and First Nations communities.
“With the RCMP, one of the priorities is youth, and another priority of the RCMP is aboriginal relations, and this kind of combines the two of them . . . It’s true that the RCMP and First Nations people, they have a negative history with one another, and it’s programs like this that are trying to change that. We’re trying to be positive role models for these youth and these cadets, and we want to steer them on a good path,” said Hynes, who joined the Saddle Lake Community Cadet Corps in 2010 after helping start one up in Goodfish Lake.
“Out of the 40 kids that were here tonight, if we accomplish that for a few of them and send them down a good path, where without the program they were kind of going by the wayside with addictions in their family or trouble in school or gang life . . . if we’ve done that for a couple of youth, we’ve accomplished something.”
RCMP operations support officer for the Eastern Alberta district Donald Ladouceur attended the event to share some inspiring words, inspect the troop and present them with $10,000 in funding from the RCMP foundation.
“We get numerous proposals and a committee sits from each province and our committee discusses who should get funding and where the dollars should go to,” Ladouceur said, adding that money from the RCMP fund always goes back into the community, whether in the form of new infrastructure, crime prevention initiatives or to the betterment of community programs.
“We all know the youth are our future and it’s programs like this that give youth leadership abilities.”
A number of cadets were also promoted up the ranks at the event, as they all proudly marched front and centre to have their epaulets presented. Cadet of the Year awards were also presented to Sgt. Andrew Jackson and Cpl. Jillian Makokis.
“Attendance is a big thing with us. We want you to be here, if you’re a part of this cadet corps you’ve got to come here, you can’t just show up once a month and expect to get promoted,” Hynes said.
“We expect these kids to be respectful of one another, respectful of the ranking system within the cadet corps and respectful of the community. We want them to be role models here and at school and when we do activities.”
While the year is at an end for the cadets in Saddle Lake, the experience will continue on for 18 lucky young men and women, as the troop departed to Brooklyn, New York, for an exchange trip with the Brooklyn Youth Marine Cadet Corps on Sunday.
“Some of the cadets that were in attendance from another reserve in Alberta were telling us about the wonderful time that they had when they hopped on a bus and drove to California (on an exchange trip) . . . a parent with our corps thought our kids deserve something like that as well so she did some research and looked into it and found the Brooklyn Youth Marine Cadets,” Hynes said, adding that they jumped at the chance to do an exchange with the Saddle Lake cadets.
“The Brooklyn Cadets are actually going to be coming up (to Saddle Lake) hopefully at the end of June as well.”
The 18 cadets and six chaperones will spend one week in the heart of New York interacting with the local cadet corps, pitching in and doing some community service, seeing the famous sights of the city and maybe even meeting with a New York State Senator.
Saddle Lake Community Cadet Corps 2013 promotions include:
Hope Brertton
Katana Cardinal
Kyla Cardinal
Summer Cardinal
Jasmine Crane
Jessica Crane
Tia Crane
Natasha Houle
Amelia Lussier
Candace Moosewah
Lavina Moosewah
Mika Oneasoo
Cain Oseemeemow
April Shirt
Shakina Shirt
Jayden Steinhauer
Julia Steinhauer
Remus Steinhauer
Nathaniel Jackson
Jillian Makokis
Nipin White
Andrew Jackson
Kallie White
Cst. Philippe Bouchard
Cst. Robert Hynes
