Winter began in Arctic Bay on
Sunday, October 6. A lot of snow had
fallen overnight and it was here to stay.
The temperature was cold enough to prevent the snow from melting. I didn’t realize how much snow had fallen
until I opened my front door. The front
porch was buried underneath a foot of snow.
I put on my Canada Goose Jacket & winter boots, and grabbed my
camera. I carefully stepped outside and
began photographing my neighbourhood.
Snow
covered my skidoo but I was glad it was protected by a tarp. Blocks of snow sat on top of the wooden
garbage bins. The tops of cars appeared
to have been covered with white blankets.
I spent a good portion of the day shoveling & brushing off snow from
my porch, skidoo, and garbage bin. The
water in the bay was still visible. It
wouldn’t begin freezing until mid-October.
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| New fire hall under construction. |
I
was right to expect the sounds of roaring skidoo engines by the end of the
day. Skidoo owners can’t wait to get their
machines out of hibernation. As for
wheelbased vehicle owners, they were expecting the roads to be plowed as soon
as possible. A few vehicles always get
stuck in the snow when winter begins.
October
9 was a big day for the cadets of 3045.
It was the first Parents Night Parade of the 2019-2020 Training Year. The cadets, especially the new recruits,
trained hard to get the drill movements right.
I reassured them to not freak out if they made mistakes at the actual
parade. Mistakes happen.
The
evening began very well with 28 cadets showing up early to get the gym ready
for the parade. That’s 87.5% of the
corps in attendance! We spent an hour
setting up chairs, tables, and flags. I
arranged the badges & promotions on the Awards Table. In the past, these were kept in envelopes but
I decided to put them out in the open to for the cadets to see. They all talked amongst themselves, trying to
figure out who would get what.
Several
cadet parents arrived early, bringing snacks for the after-parade
reception. Doors opened at 6:15pm and by
6:30pm we had a large audience. I gave
the signal to the cadet platoon commander to assemble the cadets on parade. He sized, dressed, and centered them. I stood outside the gym, wearing my dress
uniform, talking with the Guest Reviewing Officer (GRO). Nunavut MLA David Akeeagok happened to be
visiting the community and the corps managed to convince him to attend as our
GRO. When I noticed the cadets were
ready, I walked up to the gym entrance.
The platoon commander called the cadets to attention and I marched in
with the GRO. The parade began at
6:35pm.
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| MLA David Akeeagok inspecting the cadets. |
The
GRO inspected the cadets on parade while I kept the audience entertained with a
short welcome speech. The new recruits
were allowed to wear their civilian clothing because their uniforms were still
on order. It roughly takes two weeks for
clothing to arrive in the mail. A March
Past followed the inspection. Everyone
watched the cadets march in step and give the GRO an Eyes Right. I stood to the GRO’s right, returning the
salute of the cadet platoon commander.
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| David Akeeagok speaking to the cadets. |
The
parade continued with the GRO, David Akeeagok, speaking to the cadets and the
audience. He praised the cadets for
their dress, drill, & deportment, and commended the people in attendance
for supporting their local cadet corps.
It was now time to hand out badges
& promotions. I would call out the
names, and the GRO would give the badges and pose with the cadets for
photographs.
I
started with marksmanship, calling out 15 cadets to receive their badges. There are four levels. Five cadets achieved Level 1; two cadets
achieved Level 2; two cadets achieved Level 3; and six cadets achieved Level
4. The corps has a very active marksmanship
program and produces many skilled shooters.
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| Marksmanship recipients. |
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| PT Excellence cadets. |
I moved on to physical training (PT),
calling out 12 cadets to receive their badges.
The corps holds monthly PT tests, giving cadets the opportunity to earn
one of four possible levels. They’re
organized as Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Excellence. Only two PT tests were conducted until now,
so everyone was impressed by the high number of cadets achieving badges. Six cadets earned Silver, two cadets earned
Gold, and four cadets achieved Excellence.
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| The corps' newest Lance Corporals. |
Two cadets were promoted to the rank
of Lance Corporal. They were all smiles
when their names were called, marching up to the front to receive their rank
& slip-ons, having their pictures taken, and marching back to their spot
while everyone applauded. (The marksmanship
& PT cadets felt the same way when they were called up).
Three cadets were called up to
receive their 2019 National Biathlon Pins.
The pins finally arrived in the mail and tonight was the best time to
award them. The pin recognizes a cadet’s
participation in the event.
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| Biathlon Team 2020. |
The final “award” of the parade was
the announcement of the 2020 Biathlon Team.
The corps’ selection criteria for the team are: attendance, attitude,
ability. The list of names was written
on a separate piece of paper and I kept it hidden in my pocket so that no one
could see it. The corps was selecting 8
cadets to represent the corps at the upcoming territorial competition in
Whitehorse in February 2020. I read out
the 8 names and asked the chosen cadets to come to the front to be recognized. I think the five junior cadets were surprised
the most. Four of the them had just
joined in August and were already selected for an out-of-town trip. The GRO & I shook their hands and congratulated
them for being selected. I added that
plenty of weekend shooting & skiing practices were on the horizon.
The whole corps posed for a group
photograph after the parade. It’s a
standard practice after Parents Night because I use the pictures as updated cover
photos for the corps’ Facebook page. The
reception lasted 30 minutes. I thanked
David Akeeagok for being the GRO. The
cadets helped me clean up the gym after the reception.
The corps held its annual Operation
Bonfire outing on the evening of Saturday, October 12. We returned to the shoreline behind the
airport, now covered in snow, to burn wood from the woodpile the corps created
in 2013. Unfortunately, I couldn’t use
my skidoo because the headlights stopped working. When it gets dark out on the land, it gets really
dark. Thankfully, we had access to two
atvs to ferry cadets from the airport parking lot down to the woodpile. Several parents assisted in transporting cadets
between Arctic Bay & the airport.
The festivities began at 7:00pm, with
the cadets building a bonfire, and then lighting it with matches & Firestarter
sticks. We also had to add an extra ingredient
– naphtha – to speed up the burning process, otherwise, we would have had to
wait a while. When the bonfire reached
an acceptable height & intensity, I gave permission for the snacks to be
opened: hot dogs, marshmallows, juice boxes, and granola bars. There were just enough roasting sticks for
all.
The bonfire lasted until
8:30pm. We used shovels to dump snow on
the smoldering embers to extinguish the remnants of the fire. The leftover food & roasting sticks were
packed into Rubbermaid containers and the garbage bags were tied. I did one final sweep of the area before
walking back to the airport. I made sure
no cadet was left behind. The cadets
were driven home by various parents. The
corps supplies were returned to Frank’s Shop and the garbage bags were dumped
at the local landfill.
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