For cadets attending the Jean Minguy Memorial RCMP Youth Academy in Vernon, it’s a week of emulating RCMP training and benefitting from challenges, team building, friendships and skills received during the academy.
For some RCMP officers, helping out at the academy is a chance to come full circle.
The annual Jean Minguy Memorial RCMP Youth Academy, slated for May 1-7 at the Vernon Army Camp, has drawn more than 40 Grade 11 and 12 students from across the Okanagan valley.
“On average, we have about two-to-five cadets every year that go on to police work, whether with the RCMP or municipal police departments,” said academy chairperson Terry Pakenham, assisted by Vernon-North Okanagan RCMP school liaison officer Const. Kathy Szoboticsanec.
“I can‘t tell you how many have gone on to the social service sectors. They‘re paying forward what they‘ve learned.
“And, yes, we‘ve had some students come into the academy gung-ho on being part of the police force, but the consequence of going through the academy in the compressed time of seven days showed them that maybe it‘s not the career for them.”
The academy, named after Const. Jean Minguy, a popular police officer and academy booster who died on duty in Okanagan Lake in 2005, replicates one week of life at RCMP training depot in Regina.
Each applicant must undergo each phase of the selection process prior to being accepted for the academy. Once selected, they’ll have the opportunity to experience the full variety of activities that a police cadet would experience.
Cadets will attend lectures on law and police tactics, as well as practical experience in drill and self-defence. They receive coaching in self-discipline, tolerance, team building, integrity and respect, plus all of the core values the RCMP exemplify.
The academy is facilitated by school district staff, City of Vernon employees, volunteers and, of course, RCMP officers, some of whom are academy graduates.
“This year, I have two facilitators that have gone through the academy, and I have one young lady that is going through the RCMP process,“ said Szoboticsanec.
“She was with us two years ago as a student, and she is currently in the polygraph phase of the RCMP application process.”
Two special guests will be helping out at the academy this year: Minguy’s two sons, Kevin and Colin. Kevin is a 2010 youth academy graduate.
One familiar face will be missing, long-time volunteer Mary Rose Baldwin - The Killer Granny - who passed away earlier this year. Baldwin earned the moniker for playing a seemingly harmless old lady who had no problems pulling a gun on unsuspecting cadets.
“That’s such a sad loss for us. She will always have a place in the academy,” said Pakenham.
“She’ll be fondly looking down and laughing. She loved to trick these young people with her granny gun. She holds the honour of having the academy’s highest kill rate.. It’s not possible to replace Mary-Rose.”
At academy’s end, cadets take part in a special graduation ceremony. That alone, said Pakenham, makes the week-long camp worthwhile.
“The best part of the academy is how we see those cadets change over seven days,” he said. “When Kathy and I greet the parents on the seventh day as they come and see their child graduate, they remark how their children have changed. It could be something so simple as making a bed or getting up at 5:30 a.m. for a 10-kilometre run. The parents absolutely glow. It‘s cool to watch and it‘s cool to see their pride and the pride the kids have.”
“I get a lot of ‘I never would have done this but I‘m so glad I did,’” added Szoboticsanec. “Whether policing is a career they want to choose, it‘s just a sense of accomplishment because we do challenge them at the academy. We take them outside their safety zone. For any young person, that‘s such an accomplishment.”
