Moving to JoinSeaCadets.ca

Hello Fraser Raiders!

The Fraser Blog will be permanently moving to the main page of our website at joinseacadets.ca  Please utilize that page to keep up to date on what is happening around the corps. We also highly suggest liking us on Facebook.  The corps frequently adds short updates to keep everyone in the loop.  We look forward to serving you via these two new sites.

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-The Fraser Staff

Remembrance Assignment

A small group of Fraser Raiders who were not available to go Poppy Tagging were given an assignment to complete, to encourage them to take a moment and remember and learn a bit about those great men and women who have served.  
They were asked to find a veteran and do a report on their service, experiences and travels.


This is the submission of OS S. Hernandez:

Mr. T. De-Silva’s Life in the Royal Air Force in Britain

Mr. De-Silva joined the Air Force at a young age of 18, he was a young apprentice for a year in a machine shop, before he joined the Air Force.  At the time Mr. De-Silva was a single man when he volunteered to join the RAF in Britain.

Mr. De-Silva was telling me that his Mother was anxious at his being away from home, but his Father was more favorable.  A couple of days before he left he was a little bit sad, because he wasn’t going to see his family until his next vacation from the RAF. 

Mr. De-Silva told me something important, he told me he wasn’t able to choose his unit.  The Air Force would assign him to whatever group needed men.

Mr. De-Silva served 6 years in the Air Force.  He gained a lot of experience and saw a lot of places across the world.  At the end of his service, he was honourably discharged and received a medal for good service.

This was the story of Mr. De-Silva.

2011 FRASER Food Drive Results!

FRASER Sea Cadets joined in the fun with the Hyack Parade of Lights down Columbia Street on Saturday and then, after the long trek up the 6th Street hill headed off to their Annacis Island Training Centre to start collecting.

With the help of 6 parent volunteers, the FRASER raiders loaded 85 boxes with non-perishable food donations for the New Westminster Food Bank.  That should see a few neighbours through a hard winter!  :)

The Officers, Cadets and volunteers would like to send a BIG THANK YOU out to our community for all the smiles and donations, and to Market Place IGA, New Westminster for donating the bags!  This had definietley become one of our favourite activities and couldn't be the success it is without all of you!

We wish you all a wonderful Holiday Season.

Next Week! Christmas Concert!!

Next Thursday, the Cadets of RCSCC FRASER will attend the Naden Band Christmas Concert in Vancouver!  The Naden band is an excellent opportunity to watch the west coasts's Navy band and local vocalists at their finest. 
Cadets are asked to bring an unwrapped toy to donate to the Salvation Army.

Did you get a bag?

FRASER Sea cadets will be coming Saturday, December 3rd to collect non-perishable food items in support of the New Westminster food bank for their 3rd Annual Food Drive.

Bags have been distributed to homes in New Westminster and this year, near our Annacis Island home in Queensborough!

Parent volunteers are need3ed to assist our cadets in collecting donations.  Please contact Lt(N) Watson.

We will be sure to post our results and a few photos here!  Last year, through the generosity of the families of New Westminster, we collected over 2100lbs of food for our community!  We are hoping for another excellent turn out this year!

For the Sea Cadet in all of us!

BC Cadet Honour Band

During the spring break of 2011, I went to victoria to be a part of the 2011 B.C Cadet Honour Band.  It was the best and most balanced band that I have ever worked with.  I would just like to say it was the hardest 3 days of my musical life. 
Over the period of 3 days, we had 8 hours of rehearsal time. We ended up playing over 20 peices in our concert!  That is only 2 hours of rehearsal per song!! It was a great achievement for me to be chosen for the honour band and to play with such talented players from all around B.C. 


The cadets were nice, the staff were awesome, the music was great, and the concerts just made you feel so alive.  I got to experience the touring part of music and absolutely loved it.  I miss it so much and can't wait for 2012 to come around the corner!  Music is one of the big programs in cadets, and the music program in cadets are just fantastic! 

I've been a part of cadets for 6 years now, and I have to say, have included some of the best moments of my life. There is so much the cadet program has to offer, like biathlon, music, range, sailing, deployments, and summer training.  I would not be the happy person I am today without cadets. 


If you're in Cadets, stay, and work hard. If you're not, JOIN!  There is no other program in the whole world that is as rewarding as cadets. A little advice I would like to give to you younger cadets, attend as often and as many things as possible, be yourself, learn something new, and have fun!


PO2 T. Vo

October in Review

The cadets had a fun skating night at the Moody Park arena in New Westminster.  The skate night is definitely one of the favourite fitness activities that we do in the cold weather.

Operation Jellyfish helped all of our new cadets get integrated into the Sea Cadet program and helped them along with the basics of what it is to be a cadet.  Boot polishing, ironing, rank structure, and basic drill were the flavour of the weekend.  We also had our annual Divisional Pumpkin carving contest. (photos on our Facebook page)
Everyone enjoyed themselves and the uniforms are coming along nicely.

The highlight of October was the Ceremonial Divisions parade!  RCSCC FRASER was joined by the cadets of 637 RCACS ARROW for review by the Deputy Chief Constable of the New Westminster Police Service, Inspector Laurin Stenerson.  This was a thrill for the Cadets and even more so the Officers, as Inspector Stenerson was a past FRASER Cadet!  The evening was filled with presentations by the New Westminster Police on drug awareness and (the crowd favorite) the Delta Fire and Safety Service did a demonstration on emergency vehicle extraction.  Yes, you guessed right, the gentlemen from the Fire department brought their truck and cut apart a car in our parking lot.  It was AWESOME.

The end of the evening brought Major Jim Short and the friends and family of Mr. Brian Rainbow to the deck as Mr. Rainbow became Naval Cadet Brian Rainbow and was attested into the Canadian Forces and Royal Canadian Navy as a Cadet Instructor Cadre Officer at RCSCC FRASER. 

NCdt Rainbow has been a long time member of FRASER and the Officers and Cadets welcome him aboard in his new role.

2011 Orca Deployment

I was accepted for a Sea Cadet deployment aboard the Grizzly 60 (an Orca Class Patoll Vessel), to live and sail upon it for over a week. At first I was concerned that I would miss too much school, and shouldn't go.  I did attend, and it was most definantly worth it!


Over that week, I learned how to do many things including navigation, port and starboard look out duty, signalman duties, and how to be a part of the first response team.  The Orca trip was a lot of fun, and a lot of hard work. We learned about the many small jobs around the ship, but that each job is just as important as any big job. Over the trip, I had such a great time, and met alot of friends that are so so close to me now. 

One of my favorite moments was when one day, it snowed really hard and it was really foggy out. That meant that we couldn't go out cruising.  Instead, we spent the whole day learning power boating, and making a grizzly snow bear. 
If any of you cadets out there are looking to have a lot of fun and an amazing new experience, I would highly recomend it, because you can get so much out of this trip that you wouldn't be able to access anywhere else.


PO2 T. Vo

 
 

JoinSeaCadets.ca Gets a new look!!

http://www.joinseacadets.ca/ got a much needed face lift this year.  Opening the site for the first time, our first thought was 'WOW'!  Second thought was simply, THANK YOU!

The lovely design team at Available For Hire took a look at our website, sighed, shook their head and turned it into what you see now!  Beautiful graphics, easy to find documents, simple and straightforward design and best of all, it's super easy for the Officers to use!  We couldn't be happier with the results!!  Thank you Available For Hire!!

September in Review

Rather than update you on single weekends, we are going to try monthly updates!  We are back for another fantastic training year and between cadets and school work all the FRASER raiders have been very busy!!

Highlights of the month are simple, registration night and a fitness assessment for everyone and regular training has started.  The Chief's and PO's weekend (Operation Starfish) was a HUGE success and integrated many new, fun activities that were excellent team builders, leadership refreshers and some general ice breakers so the newest PO2's can settle into their Mess.  Everyone went home thoroughly exhausted but excited for the year to come.

The President of the Navy League of Canada, New Westminster Branch came to review the ship's Company at the Ceremonial Divisions parade in September and was impressed by the turn out.

Who Are You

New requirements for placement of medals, name tags and Corps Crests are posted below but, what if you don't have a name tag?

In the Quarterdeck (the white box on the Parade Square) you will find a sign-up sheet for name tags.  Name tags are purchased by the Cadet for $2.00 each.  Please hand your money to the Commanding Officer (Lt(N) Megan St. Hilaire) as soon as possible.  Your order will not be placed until the money has been received, the order will go in November 18th.  

All name tags are to military standard specifications and come with regular backers.  If you would like to order SuperClips, please add $1.00 to your order.  What are SuperClips you ask, see the pic below on the right!

Recent Cadet Uniform Changes

With changes, comes confusion.  To help you clear some things up, here are the dress regulations for the changes to the Sea Cadet Uniform effective September 1, 2011.

Nametags are worn beneath the Corps Crest, on the RIGHT SIDE  of the tunic, above the breast pocket as shown here.

Cadets with medals (or ribbons, as appropriate) will wear them on the RIGHT SIDE of their tunic, BELOW the nametag as shown here.

Cadets with more than one medal wear them in order of precedence as shown below with medals centered, most important towards the center of your body. 

Royal Victoria Yacht Club - Fall Dinghy Championship Regatta

The Royal Victoria Yacht Club is hosting the Fall Dinghy Championship Regatta on September 24-25, 2011.

Transportation and accomodation are not provided for this event.           RCSU(P) will cover entry fees and provide boats and coaching for competition.  Dinner on Saturday night and Lunch on Sunday afternoon will be provided. Other meals are on own.

Applications must be submitted to the corps email address. More applications are expected than available seats in boats, therefore please get your applications in ASAP.

Notice of Race: NOR - Fall Dinghy Regatta
Cadet Application: Application Form

Cadet Training Starts Thursday, September 6th!

Just the first of a few reminders we will send out before RCSCC FRASER starts back up on September 6th! Make sure you find your uniform and try it all on!!

For those of you who have received new badges at a summer training center, or had badges in your pockets waiting for you to attach them to your uniform, please follow the guide below.

Learn to Sail with Fraser Sea Cadets

Petty Officer First Class Cory Bernard is about to join 50 other teenage Royal Canadian Sea Cadets at the National Sailing Regatta held in Kingston, Ontario August 20-27. The competition involves the best sailors from each province in 4 days of racing. Testing their seamanship, strategy and physical endurance, this is the culmination of years of training provided by the sea cadet program.

Cory will represent Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Corps FRASER at the highest level of competition for Sea Cadets. The annual regatta is held on the waters of Lake Ontario off Ft. Henry and the Royal Military College of Canada. Cory earned his berth at the event by placing 3rd at the National Qualifying Regatta held during the May long weekend in Victoria.

Twelve races are scheduled to take place during the national regatta. Sailing 420 class dinghies, rigged with trapeze and spinnaker, teams of two will sail a modified Olympic triangle course. Twelve hundred teenaged sea cadets are introduced to sailing in 30 sea cadet corps in BC, making it the largest youth sail training program in the province.

Youth interested in learning to sail or participate in cadet activities are invited to attend RCSCC Fraser’s registration night, Thursday, September 8 between 6:30 and 9:00PM. The corps is located at 535 Derwent Way on Annacis Island. There is no cost to join RCSCC Fraser and the corps serves the communities of New Westminster, Burnaby and Delta.


As posted in The Record Link here to see the article

FRASER FESTIVAL at the New Westminster Quay

It's a bright sunny weekend down at the New Westminster Quay for the annual FraserFest. Sunshine has been such a rarity this summer, why not get out and enjoy it!?!
Cadets from 102 RCSCC FRASER are busy selling tickets for the Paddlewheeler River Tours, with all proceeds to support the Fraser Alumni Association.


Tours leave every hour from 11:00 till 4:00, for 45 minutes. Prices are $5 for Aduts and $2 for children.

Operation VICTOR

Fraser held a “back to basics” training weekend, focusing on drill, dress and deportment (the three D’s of cadets).  Included in the weekend activities were exercises in attitude, teamwork, uniform maintenance, and aided in the growing pride of being a sea cadet, and a part of RCSCC FRASER.

To kick start the weekend, the corps participated in some very competitive sports.  Over the span of the games, all of the cadets showed an improvement in working as a team, and was a fun, relaxed, night for all.

Saturday was a long day for both the senior NCO’s and the junior cadets. Throughout the day, cadets were faced with drill sessions, including many cadence counts, to keep in step, and the usual reminders of arms up,  chin up and clench your fists.  In the end, everyone showed an improvement in both the execution of the movements.

The Master Seaman were introduced to a new level of leadership to prepare them for their role as a Petty Officer in the coming year.  They were given a leadership role in the weekend and instead of receiving direction and orders, they had to be providers of instructions and command their group of junior cadets.  They all had the team of PO’s to support them, so it wasn’t all that bad.  The Master Seaman worked together to learn a key part of leadership, teamwork.  Their ability to work together improved along with their ability to lead, and command a group of cadets. Each of them walked away from the weekend with a different lesson learned, from self confidence, to remembering that mistakes can be used as a learning tool.

An overall improvement was seen in attitude, pride, and esprit de corps.  The junior cadets also exhibited a large improvement in drill.  The junior cadets did an amazing job on their uniforms for the Battle of the Atlantic parade, and will find they have to keep their uniforms up to par, now that the NCO’s have seen just how good they can be.

At the end of this weekend there was a corps drill competition between syndicates and both teams were outstanding.  They put a lot of time and effort into this, and the result was spectacular, with much fun had by all.

~PO1 A. Gagnon

Battle of the Atlantic 2011

This year, Fraser had it’s annual Battle of the Atlantic parade, May 1^st, during the training weekend Operation Victor.  All of the Corps hard work in drill, dress, and deportment went to good practical use for this parade.

Battle of the Atlantic serves to commemorate the sailors who lost their lives at sea, never to return home.  Battle of the Atlantic was the longest spanning battle during the Second World War.  Both the Merchant navy and the Royal Canadian Navy, fought the German u-boats to ensure that the battle front had sufficient supplies.  Canada was one of the main countries to support the soldiers fighting on the front.

Both RCSCC FRASER and the NLCC J.F. Williams looked sharp for the ceremony held at AITQ.  Petty Officer Vo did an outstanding job on the bugle, PO1 Bliss, the coxswain of J.F. Williams, had the honour of the Roll Call of Ships.  

Navy League and Sea Cadet alike, had the chance to throw a flower into the Fraser River, a tradition for the Battle of the Atlantic as there are no graves upon which to lay a wreath, and help the Cadets to understand and remember those lost at sea.

The parade was a huge success, and we look forward to having it return to the New Westminster Quay in 2012.

~PO1 A. Gagnon

National Biathlon Winner

Starting Line at the Cadet National Biathlon Competition

A few weeks ago I traveled to Val-Cartier, Quebec to represent not only the Province of BC, but my very own Corps, FRASER at the National Cadet Biathlon Competition! 

I had an amazing experience, making new friends from different Provinces and Territories, touring Old Quebec, and eating FRESH maple syrup on snow.  There is so much more I could list, but those were just some of the highlights to my trip.  Cadets Canada even brought us to the sugar shack where EVERYTHING was made with maple syrup. What a dinner it was too!

The setting of the place is beautiful and Team BC performed really well, winning almost as many golds as Ontario.  It was a great experience in general. 

Cadets has done so much for me through camp, biathlon, honour band or sailing. If I wasn't in cadets, I would never have found my way through all of this.  I highly recommend to everyone to go out and try something new in the cadet program.

~PO2 Louisa Tsang