Local cadets Philippe Gore, Daryl Rowse and Brad Hazelton were all recognized for excellence at Camp Vernon.
They are members of 1922 Royal Canadian Army Cadet Corps based in Abbotsford. Gore is from Abbotsford, while Rowse and Hazelton are from Aldergrove.
Gore won the award as best overall cadet in the first intake of the Basic Military Band Course at the Vernon Army Cadet Summer Training Centre.
Gore attended a three-week Basic Military Band Course, where cadets were taught how to assemble, disassemble, maintain and store their instruments, how to apply music theory and play as members of an ensemble and to drill as a member of a band. Cadets also had time for fitness training and testing, sports and practice on the abseil tower.
Rowse received the award as top cadet in 23 Platoon of the Basic Expedition Course. He spent three weeks learning the fundamentals of expedition training, including how to select and navigate a route using maps, ride a mountain bike on trails and paddle a canoe on flat water. The training was used during a five-day expedition in the hills overlooking the Okanagan Valley. Expedition cadets also spend a day in Sicamous, cleaning up tons of debris washed down from the mountains during a flood earlier this summer.
Hazelton was recognized as the top cadet in his platoon, after he attended the three-week Basic Sports and Fitness Course, which prepares the cadets to fulfill the duties of a sports and fitness assistant at his or her home corps. Cadets study the theory and the benefits of sports, learn muscle structure, injury prevention and safety and nutritional planning.
Over the summer, 1,150 army, sea and air cadets from western Canada spent up to six weeks in the Okanagan Valley centre, expanding the training they receive at their home corps, developing new skills and making friends.