The 676 Lorne Scots Royal Canadian Army Cadet Corps is gearing up to mark a significant milestone.
The group will celebrate its 50th anniversary on June 14 with an Annual Ceremonial Review (ACR) and a show.
“We're going to have a drill demonstration with our cadets who are best at drill,” Master Warrant Officer Nathan Peredery, 17, told HaltonHillsToday.
The ACR is an annual ceremony where the corps marches in a parade, awards are presented and dignitaries give speeches. The drill team will be an added fixture of this year’s ACR. The history and work of the cadets will also be on display for the anniversary.
“We've got some special guests coming. I actually found the very first cadet who joined the unit when it was re-established 50 years ago,” Capt. Cara Lacey explained.
“He's going to come and speak to the guests and the cadets about what the program was like then and what it meant to him and how it's kind of transformed his life."
The ceremony will take place in the rear of the Col. J. R. Barber Armoury at 91 Todd Rd. at 7 p.m. It's open to the public, but seating is limited.
In the meantime, Peredery, who is leading the choreography of the drill team, is whipping those under his command into shape for the occasion.
“It’s been kind of a live script. So as I've seen things that weren't working well in the choreography, we changed them out for other things,” he said.
Much has changed since the cadet corps was first raised in 1916 under the name The Georgetown High School Cadet Corps. Back then, cadet training was part of the regular high school curriculum and was administered by the local school board.
Sometime in the 1960s, the school boards no longer oversaw the cadets and in 1968, the Georgetown Cadet Corps was temporarily disbanded.
On June 1, 1973, the unit returned under the name 676 Lorne Scots.
“They started parading down out of the old armoury (1 Park Ave.), and then we moved over into this new armoury,” Lacey said.
But while so much has changed over the decades, a lot has also stayed the same.
“We give these youth a place to go; we give them something to do," said Lacey. "We are instilling self-confidence; we're teaching them skills."
