BY BRIAN WARRINGTON
Special to the AV News
Cadets from the Port Alberni Navy League (Armour Ford) corps had a chance to show off some newly acquired skills over the Oct. 8 weekend.
Assisted by Parksville Navy League cadets and supervised by officers, Port Alberni’s cadets completed an afternoon of search and rescue training at Rathtrevor Provincial Park.
Following some preparation time and coaching, cadets were soon on the trail of a “missing” pilot, making use of global positioning or GPS devices. Cadets plotted a course, navigated from point to point and radioed in their findings employing a select naval code. Following a few hours of exercise, finding clues, navigation and radio communication, cadets completed the exercise the same day, successfully locating their pilot.
“We took advantage of the warm weather and gave our cadets a thorough afternoon of fun and adventure,” said Lt. Todd Flaro, Armour Ford Corps commanding officer.
“By day’s end, each of our cadets could not only navigate with a GPS, they were also communicating like real professionals on the radio. Although not a real missing person, cadets completed the exercise by locating one of my staff officer’s teddy bear.”
The Navy League program operates in more than 260 communities with more than 15,000 members and in more than 100 communities across Canada. Navy League is open to girls and boys, aged nine to 12, with an interest in naval themed activities, leadership, band, first aid, orienteering, water safety, knot tying, geocaching, communications and making new friends.
Port Alberni cadets, in addition to weekend activities, meet weekly, Wednesday evenings, 6:15 – 8:30 p.m., 6211 Cherry Creek Rd. Training is open to any youth, boy or girl, age 9 – 12. Registration is free and uniforms are on loan free of charge.
“This was just a start,” Flaro said of the cadet season. “We hope to conduct this and other activities several times this year. Registration is open, and we are seeing new youngsters turn up each week.” For further information, call Flaro at 250-735-0784, find the corps at www.facebook.com/PortAlberniCadets/ or go to the website at https://navyleague.ca.
