This post is the start of a continuing series on my blog that will describe what I do every Thursday night at SES Cadets. I was going to SES Cadets last year, but I stopped going. Anyway, following is a description of what we did on Thursday, the 22nd of March, 2007.
We left home at about 6:17PM, and drove into Yeppoon. Because I hadn’t been to SES Cadets since last year, I didn’t realize that they had moved, so when we arrived at the town hall (their previous location), nobody was there. Thankfully we remembered that they had moved to the emergency services headquarters, so we drove there. Arriving, we saw the fire and ambulance headquarters, but we had to go right up the back to where the SES shed is located before we saw any signs of life.
This week was our “party night,” as it is the last SES Cadets meeting until the 19th April. The first thing everyone does when they arrive is sign in. After that they’re free to go and play until everyone starts. This particular night the leaders had decided to go to the beach, do some races, measure our paces and do marching practice. Marching practice is especially important since SES Cadets are going to be marching in the Anzac Day parade, along with the police, fire, ambulance, army cadets and SES personnel.
So, down we all drove to the beach. Arriving, we found that another crowd of kids, younger than us, were already on the beach. We found out that they were school students who lived in places a long way from from any towns or cities, although all of the children living in the Central Queensland area. They had come to Yeppoon for their sports carnival, and they were staying at St. Brendans, the boarding school just out of Yeppoon.
After meeting those kids, we started our races which ranged from 100m to about 450m. Once the races had finished, we started our marching practice. Since I hadn’t been to the Cadets for over 6 months, I had to copy the person in front of me when it came to obeying the marching commands. The marching practice went on for about 10 – 15 minutes, and after it had finished we went back up the stairs to the area near the Surf Lifesaving building.
Back we went to the SES headquarters, to have something to eat. St. Brendans and St. Ursulas had brought along some food, but since I’m a vegetarian and the food wasn’t, I brought along an apple and banana instead. After the food, the Cadets meeting was almost over. One of the SES Cadet leaders then announced the announcements (including the one that said that everyone must be wearing a uniform by the next meeting or else), and the meeting was officially over.
For those interested, the SES Cadets meet every Thursday night at the SES headquarters, where they start at 6:30pm and finish at about 9:00pm. You can also go to the Queensland emergency website to find out more about the Yepoon SES Cadets.
