Annual Ceremonial Review

Our children that are members of the Royal Canadian Air Cadets had there Annual Ceremonial Review (ACR) this past weekend.  The ACR is a time each year that the cadets display what they have learnt in the past year and are recognized for their accomplishments with their family and friends present.  For our family this event is like a family reunion with grandparents and adult siblings (and families attending).  One son who is an air cadet officer (staff) in a different community arrived in uniform to help out which was greatly appreciated as our squadron recently had staff retire.

One of our daughters was the "squadron commander" (the highest position a cadet can obtain) which was even more meaningful as it was her final parade as an air cadet.  The cadets demonstrated their leadership, drill (marching), rifle target practice, model rocketry, and first aid skills.  For the first aid demonstration they had a younger sibling go sit on the parade square and start pretend crying with a possible broken leg.  This siblings acting skills were quite effective as I had people come up asking "how my daughter was", personally I thought it was obvious that it was a demonstration but apparently not.  Inside they had displays of survival weekends, glider flying days, volunteer activities they did as a group, etc.  Our eldest daughter was the master of ceremonies and much to her shock and horror, when the music sound system failed, was required to lead everyone in singing the "national anthem".  She did a lovely job however she is not a singer and being put on the spot to sing was a little bit horrifying for her.

All three of our children that are cadets were presented with an award which was a huge surprise.  Our daughter the "squadron commander" was presented with the "citizenship" award.  To win this award they look at all the cadets and consider what type of "citizen" they are in all aspects of their life not just at cadets.  What type of leaders are they?, what volunteer activities do they do outside of cadets, and what type of students are they?Another daughter won the award for "Top level 4" cadet which is presented to the highest achieving fourth year cadet and our son won the "Coral Wallace award" which is presented to the cadet that they believe has worked the hardest that year at overcoming diversity.  Our son has been diagnosed with FASD and ADHD which does present challenges for him in many areas of his life so it was nice that it was recognized how hard he works.