A plane taxis behind local cadets from 205 Collishaw during their annual ceremonial review on Sunday, May 28. (Alex Rawnsley/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Alex Rawnsley

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VIDEO: Local cadets complete annual Ceremonial Review at Nanaimo Airport

May 28, 2023 | 1:47 PM

NANAIMO — It might be the end of the road for some, but cadets from 205 Collishaw will leave the program armed with valuable life skills.

The squadron celebrated all their achievements from the last year with their annual Ceremonial Review on Sunday, May 28 at the Nanaimo Flying Club’s base at Nanaimo Airport.

Commanding officer David Ruel told NanaimoNewsNOW the event is a chance for cadets to show what they’re learned and skills developed during the year.

“Cadets get to showcase the different things they’ve learned throughout the year. The drill that we have during the parade, after parade we usually have a bunch of displays of the different things we do, different programs we run.”

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Around 90 cadets participate in the program locally, with ages ranging from 12 to 19 years old.

Ruel said their current group skews on the younger side.

“We have a lot of first and second-year cadets, 12 to 14-year-old range, half our squadron is probably made up of those cadets at the moment. The seniors, level five, they help with instructing the cadets.”

It’s a full-circle program by design with Ruel mentioning they’re intentionally built upon “cadets leading cadets”.

The program has a heavy focus on aviation with cadets learning about aircraft maintenance, airport operations and other aspects of the field.

Ruel said they’ll also do camps where survival skills are learned and field training exercises performed.

The older cadets also develop valuable life skills through working with the younger group.

“They start teaching cadets, the seniors always teach our junior cadets, so they learn mentoring skills and leadership skills.”

Sunday’s ceremony was the first back at the Nanaimo Flying Club since before the pandemic.

Cadets fell into formation just after 1 p.m. on Sunday, May 28 and began their annual ceremonial review at Nanaimo Airport. (Alex Rawnsley/NanaimoNewsNOW)

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