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Sea Cadets want to restore Night Watches

Posted 7 hours ago

HUGO RODRIGUES Expositor Staff Dennis Jackson or, more formally, Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Corps Admiral Nelles Chief Petty Officer First Class Dennis Jackson fondly remembers his first overnight "on-board" at the Navy League's Waterloo Street home, affectionately called "the ship." "All the leading cadets and above stayed an extra day and we did our first leadership training," said Jackson, the 18-year-old Grade 12 student at Brantford Collegiate Institute who is one of this corps' highest-ranked cadets. "On-boards help bond the cadets. We get a lot closer because we've had those extra experiences." Petty Officer Second Class Samantha Mark, 16, and Petty Officer First Class Becca Cainey, 16, nodded in agreement as Jackson spoke about these overnight trainings, which haven't been held since 2009. The Navy League's building doesn't have a fire alarm system and as a result, the cadets are no longer able to hold such sessions to help show what serving on a naval vessel 24 hours a day can be like. "Night watches without sleeping here overnight and being part of an on-board, you don't get a chance to do that," Mark said. Cainey said they can be an important part of cadet training, providing an longer opportunity to reinforce skills than the weekly meetings held throughout the year. There are also more opportunities for unstructured time. Both Cainey and Mark reflected on the movies, nachos and fellowship of their previous on-boards. To raise the needed $18,000, the Navy League of Canada's Brantford branch is asking for help to "fill the deck." The organization supports both the Admiral Nelles Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Corps and the Admiral Landymore Navy League Sea Cadet Corps and is selling the "deck" in $60-per-square-foot pieces of a ship. Branch president Ann Keeley-Meloche said the league has been challenged on other much-needed repairs to the building patching the roof to delay a needed replacement, a top-to-bottom cleaning and repainting, adding more classroom space and replacing two of the three furnaces. It does receiving funding from the United Way of Brant, but these funds support its programs and cannot be used for expenses related to upgrades or changes to the building. The desired system would meet all current building and fire codes and include the requisite pull stations, visual and audible alarms and sensors. "There's a lot more training that could take place with the alarm system in place," Keeley-Meloche said. With each $60 square foot sold, donors are eligible for different levels of recognition. A square foot earns a chief petty officer rank of recognition, with a $900 donation equivalent to filling 15 square feet of deck would earn recognition at the rank of Admiral. hrodrigues@theexpositor.com twitter.com/EXPHugo Copyright 2012 Brantford Expositor

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1/14/2012 3:06 AM