Ready for parade
Cadet corps front and centre of Remembrance Day in Naujaat
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Wednesday, November 9, 2016
NAUJAAT
Remembrance Day is looked upon as the most important day of the year for many cadet corps across Canada.
Members of the 3055 RCACC salute and give an eyesright while marching past the cenotaph during the cadet's practice for the Remembrance Day ceremony in Naujaat this week. - photo courtesy of Lloyd Francis |
And the 3055 Royal Canadian Army Cadet Corps Naujaat has been highlighting that importance by practising for its Remembrance Day ceremony for the past two weeks.
Commanding officer Capt. Lloyd Francis said the corps has been rehearsing the cadets marching into the gym, and the duties of the flag party and the rifle (honour) guard.
He said he's confident the corps has everything covered pretty well.
"Remembrance Day is the most important thing we do all year," said Francis.
"I put it above everything else because the cadets are front and centre during the ceremony.
"The reason we have cadets is because of the people who sacrificed during the war for us.
"We're not a military organization, but one of the aims of cadets is to stimulate an interest in the Canadian Armed Forces."
The cadet program is the only thing associated with the military in Naujaat other than the Canadian Rangers.
Francis is the only reserve officer in the community, and the only person in uniform besides the Rangers.
He said he's never had anything even resembling a negative experience during a Remembrance Day service in Naujaat.
"All of the kids, from kindergarten to Grade 12, are very respectful, and very, very quiet and dignified during the service.
"They really appreciate what the cadets do for the Remembrance Day service.
"I have some poems read, we have every community organization lay a wreath, and we try to follow the same routine for a Remembrance Day service that would go on anywhere else across the country.
"However we will hold our service on Nov. 9 instead of Nov. 11, because the school service is the only one we do in Naujaat."
Francis said members of the community turn out in droves for the service.
He said he's also been doing Postcards for Peace - a Government of Canada initiative delivered through Veterans Affairs - at school for the past three years.
"You order postcards to send to veterans' care facilities to thank the veterans for their service, or to thank current military members.
"This will be our fourth year doing this, so all the classes will be writing postcards to send.
"My Grade 9 class will address them and send them to veterans' care facilities across the country.
"I really enjoy doing this because my great uncle - who served in the air force - has been in a veterans' care facility back in Sydney Mines, N.S., for the past three years.
"I always make sure one or two of my students do one for him, and he has them all on the wall in his room."
