Page 26 - Cadet Review Spring 2021

CEY Wing ATC
Central and East Yorkshire Wing deliver through adversity
By Squadron Leader Marcus Griffiths
Back in March 2020, things started to look pretty bleak. No one could go out, reports of shortages
in supermarkets and schools shutting, painted a gloomy picture. As the pandemic took hold we as an organisation had to close our squadron doors to all our cadets. A sad day for everyone. However, this
is when the true spirit of all the volunteers came to the fore.
Within days of lockdown coming into force, squadrons across the Wing leapt into action and developed online parade evenings or Virtual Parade Nights (VPNs) as they became known. With support from the Bader Team at Cranwell MS Teams became the IT solution to allow all cadets and staff to continue engaging in cadet activities. A massive thank you to them for keeping us all connected throughout.
The volunteers produced topics ranging from the core curriculum subjects to guest speakers from the upper echelons of the service and visitors from across the other side of the world. Examples were invitations to serving engineering officers to talk to cadets, quiz sessions for cadets and staff, photography competitions, BBMF presentations, Air Commodore presentations, and a number of overseas officers talking about their services. With
All this was put together by volunteers giving up their time to make sure our young people continued to benefit from the cadet experience
these sessions has come a confidence in our cadets to be able to take part in delivering sessions too, under the guidance of staff present.
All this was put together by volunteers giving up their time to make sure our young people continued to benefit from the cadet experience. Many volunteer staff were working flat out in their ‘day jobs’ to help the country battle against the Covid virus. A large proportion of staff are frontline workers, yet they
are still able to deliver lessons and activities for the cadets after their shifts.
We must not also underestimate the effort and commitment put in by our cadets. Each and every one of them, working on their school curriculum at home with online lessons and homework. Then, as the evening comes, they join their fellow cadets at VPNs across the Wing. Well done all of you.
There are so many staff giving their all at this time it is impossible to name them, so a big thank you to everyone for going ‘above and beyond’ to maintain the delivery of an unbeatable level of service to the Royal Air Force Air Cadets in our region. Keep going and we can look forward to getting out there with our cadets in the near future.
26 CADET REVIEW SPRING 2021