Cadet Camp

Every year at spring break the Hornby Island Fire Department puts on a "Cadet Camp". We take the first 16 kids between 10 and 12 that sign up and put them through 2 days of fun and educational activities. I took the day off work to help out. After all, Rachelle had volunteered to cook all the meals for the camp.

In the morning we organized 4 stations and ran the kids in 4 groups through a 30 minute session in each station. I helped Rob in the "Auto Extrication" stage. We had a donated car that we tore the doors off of with the hydraulic spreaders. The kids worked the various tools while we held the tool in place. To wrap up the session we put a toaster in the jaws of the door spreader and the kids crushed it into a cube. Big hit!

After a great lunch the kids walked a short distance up to the school and we followed in the trucks. There we set up 3 stations to do everything from delivering water to the pumper, to spraying water and foam out of the hoses.

After the lunch was cleaned up the cooks came out to the schoolyard to join in the fun and take a few pictures for our blog. The sun was out and everyone was having fun. The kids were STOKED and looking forward to coming back tomorrow.



Tomorrow they're going to do a bunch of first aid training. In the evening the kids will attend the real fire practice that all the volunteer firefighters do every Thursday. At some point in the evening there will be an award ceremony where the kids get a certificate and a Cadet Camp t-shirt. I won't be there during the day because I'm going back to work. We're doing shingle and board-and-baton siding at "Wayne School" and I don't want to miss that session.