MANITOULIN—At a recent “special occasion” parade night for the 348 Manitoulin Sea Cadet Corps, incoming commanding officer S Lt (N) Tina Davidson took advantage of the large number of Cadet parents in attendance to talk about opportunities available to Sea Cadets, particularly summer camps, with the possibility of senior Cadets having the opportunity for paid instructor’s positions.
For first year Cadets, ages 12 and 13, she had some bad news, but this was quickly offset by very good news.
The bad news is that the Department of National Defence is no longer making summer camp experiences available to first year (ages 12 and 13) cadets because of the unhappy experiences of some children at that age being away from home for a week or two.
The offsetting good news, unique to young 348 Manitoulin Sea Cadets, is that they will have, at least this coming summer, the opportunity for a week’s sailing instruction through the Little Current Yacht Club’s sailing instruction program, all for free.
S Lt (N) Davidson explained that through a discussion with Bruce O’Hare, the yacht club member responsible for the club’s young people’s sailing instruction program, she learned of a family foundation that has strong ties to the North Channel and cruising its waters and whose mission is to assist youth organizations in various ways internationally.
The newly sworn-in commanding officer has contacted the philanthropist with an introduction by Mr. O’Hare, and the outcome is a successful one.
For this coming summer, Spark Potential Canada has agreed to pay for one week’s sailing instruction (a value of $200 – $300 per sailor) for a dozen first year cadets.
Eric Cowan, a board member of Spark Canada Potential, told the Expositor he’s grown up sailing and instructing and was searching for opportunities where Spark Canada Potential could support sailing, particularly for youth who might not otherwise have the opportunity.
“During our annual cruise to the North Channel last summer,” Mr. Cowan explained, “I was able to connect with Bruce O’Hare at a Cruisers’ net happy hour and, after some back and forth, Bruce came up with this good way to support youth sailing through the Sea Cadets.”
He added, “I hope we’ve come up with a meaningful way to support youth sailing and, if everything goes well, my hope is to make this support recurring annually.”
Spark Potential Canada was initially started as a charitable foundation to support education in developing countries (primarily Africa) and more recently the organization has considered more local educational opportunities, such as the Manitoulin Sea Cadet initiative.
This will either earn, or give participating cadets a solid grounding towards, the CanSail One certificate that every cadet must obtain in order to achieve higher ranks.
“CanSail is a national program, recognized by the Department of National Defence, and it will get our cadets on the water for the week,” S Lt (N) Davidson explained, adding that, “basically, this means that all of our first-year cadets can participate and the only responsibility for parents is to get the cadets to Little Current’s Low Island (where the sailing dinghy’s are kept and the instruction will take place) every day for a week, likely in mid-August.”
