Emergency Services Cadets are successful with a Lotterywest grant

The Cadet program run at the Bridgetown High School does a wonderful job in nurturing our young people, helping develop their resilience.

The program has been running for around twenty years and is open for all students at the high school to attend, and at the moment it has a very even spread of males and females and has around 60 to 70 cadets.

The cadets meet and take part in different activities each Tuesday after school.

A dedicated group of volunteers, John Tonai-Moore is the Unit Leader, with Cherie Old, Mike Kneel, Sarah Gardiner, Damon Treloar and Bianca Spice all give their own time to make the program a worthwhile learning experience for the cadets. Three new volunteers have joined the team this year, they are Jessica Cicchini and Eliza McDonald who are both physical education teachers and have a lot of experience with outdoor activities and Yuko Tonai-Moore, the school chaplain.

The Emergency Services Cadets received at the end of last year a $15,000 Lotterywest grant.

John Tonai-Moore who has been involved in the program for over nineteen years is delighted with the monies received and explains how it was spent, “The grant we received at the end of last year was put towards good quality Goretex rain jackets, trekking poles and water shoes. We have received 30 pairs of trekking poles and 47 Goretex Rain jackets. We are still waiting on delivery of the water shoes.

“The cadets use the trekking poles for stability, especially when walking with a heavy back pack, whilst navigating slippery or narrow paths, or a steep decent.

“The water shoes we will use for canoeing and for times when we are in rivers, dams and swamps.

“The rain jackets will allow us to be out and about on those days when the rain just does not stop.

“Over the years Lotterywest has been very generous with the grants to our service cadets.

“We apply for grants for equipment every two years or so. We submit a comprehensive plan for equipment we like to buy, then explain the use we will put the equipment too, it really has been as easy as that, Lotterywest are good supporters of our group.

“Covid-19 keeps throwing spanners into the works, at present there will be no overnight or two or three day training camps. So, at the moment we are planning three one-day excursions this term. Abseiling with our year 9/10 cadets, Cycling with the year 8 cadets and Hiking with the year 7 cadets.

Funding for the cadet program is from the state government through the department of communities.

This allows us to issue a uniform to each cadet, consisting of a shirt, hat, jacket, pants and boots.

“The funding allows us to offer the program free to our cadets so that it is accessible to everyone, no matter their financial situation.

“The most important element of the program to me is when I witness the cadets, who give each challenge that we present to them their best shot, which is not always successful, but time and again I see cadets rise to meet the many challenges they are faced with, then when they succeed, they triumph.”

Emergency Services Cadets nurture and train our future generations of emergency services volunteers.