Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

Repulse Bay (Jan 30/02) - The cadet program in Repulse Bay is going through some growing pains.

The Repulse corps recently finished fourth in the drill competition held in Cambridge Bay. The overall championship was claimed by Pond Inlet.

The Yellowknife air cadets took second place, the Yellowknife army cadets third and Whitehorse placed fifth.

Leonie Aissaoui was a driving force in having the Repulse cadet program officially recognized a little more than three years ago.

Although somewhat disappointed with the fourth-place finish, Aissaoui says this year's competition was extremely close.

"The teams competing in Cambridge this year were very strong," says Aissaoui. "Our team lost a couple of points here and there and that was the difference."

Last year, bad weather kept the judging officer from visiting Repulse. Corps instructors held a public competition anyway because the exposure was good for the cadets.

Two drill teams took part, with their efforts put to video and sent to Cambridge Bay. Once the Cambridge team viewed the tape, they conceded the championship trophy to Repulse Bay.

"That was very, very good of them to do that. After working so hard in preparation for the competition, it must have been so hard on the cadets to do such a wonderful gesture in conceding the trophy to us," says Aissaoui.

The Repulse corps is struggling somewhat with its numbers this year.

Aissaoui says as the kids get older, they tend to lose interest. The younger kids in the hamlet are interested in the program, but more are dropping out right now than entering.

"The initial excitement of having a local corps has passed, but our numbers will rise again as more kids in the community turn 12 years of age," she says.

"We may have to come up with some activities that make cadets more fun to attend. Hopefully, that would attract more kids into the corps."