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RCMP officer wins award Work with cadets recognized
Shawn Giilck
Northern News Services
Published Thursday, October 3, 2013
INUVIK
An Inuvik RCMP officer is tops in Canada's three territories when it comes to volunteer work with the cadets and junior Rangers.
RCMP Chief Supt. Wade Blake, left, presented Const. Derek Young with the Beckwith Trophy on Sept. 23 for his work with the Inuvik Cadet Corps. The award is presented to the top volunteer among RCMP officers serving in the NWT, Yukon and Nunavut working with cadets or junior Rangers. - Shawn Giilck/NNSL photo
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Const. Derek Young was presented with the Beckwith Trophy by Chief Supt. Wade Blake Sept. 23 as the Inuvik Cadets met for their regular meeting.
Young, who hadn't been informed he was receiving the honour, was caught off-guard.
"I haven't really processed it yet," he said afterward about the unexpected ceremony.
Blake reinstituted the Beckwith Trophy last year to recognize an RCMP member who is providing significant contributions to their local cadets or Junior Rangers within the Northern Region.
"The origins of this award go back to the early 1980s when the Beckwith Trophy was awarded to an RCMP member for outstanding contribution to a Cadet Corps or Squadron within the Northern region," stated Cpl. Shawn King in a media release giving the background on the award.
"Prior to last year, the award had not been given out since 2004, and the trophy had remained here at G Division headquarters in Yellowknife. Last year, the award was reactivated as a great way of encouraging RCMP members to become involved with their local youth. We expanded the eligibility criteria to be inclusive of all three territories, and to also include work with the Junior Rangers."
Young has worked with the Inuvik Cadets since he was posted to the area in 2010. At the time, the other officers involved with the program had been transferred, and he stepped in to fill the void.
The nomination came from Paul MacDonald, who heads the Inuvik cadet program.
"Since the day he started he has created a professional, mentoring relationship between the cadets, the RCMP and himself," MacDonald said.
"In a community where there is a general negative overtone towards RCMP, Young has overcome this barrier by leaps and bounds.
"Cadets have a great trust in him. He is diligent in his work, honest, truly compassionate, has an excellent sense of humour and has great moral standing."
Young said "I had no clue as to what was going on. I recognized the chief-superintendent, of course, and some of the others, but I was just trying to follow what was going on."
He said he had virtually no background with the cadets when he arrived in Inuvik. He had once joined a group when he was a youngster, but didn't stick with it longer than a couple of weeks.
He said one of his favourite parts of volunteering with the Inuvik cadets was watching them "mature and grow."
"I can see such a difference in them since I started," he said.
Young is a New Brunswick native who avidly sought out a Northern post, and in Inuvik in particular.
He's on the final year of his assignment to Inuvik, but Young said he's already thinking of doing more work with cadets or a similar group wherever the RCMP post him next.
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