Police Cadet Corps enjoy Sports camp
It’s not a summer camp, but Easter vacation is just as good a time to get young people out in the sun and having fun. News Five’s Kendra Griffith was in Orange Walk for one activity designed to give kids a sense of belonging.
Kendra Griffith, Reporting
This week, approximately three hundred and fifty children between eight and seventeen years old converged on Muffles College to compete in a variety of sporting events.
Yadira Argueta
?Volleyball, football, and relay race.?
Kendra Griffith
?You win anything??
Yadira Argueta
?Yes ma?am, the volleyball.?
Kendra Griffith
?Gold??
Yadira Argueta
?Yes ma?am, but about right now we have to play another game against Mango Creek.?
Conrad Thomas
?At this sports camp I haven?t got any medal yet, because we haven?t won any sports as yet, but we got more sports to come.?
Kendra Griffith
?Who?s your toughest competition??
Conrad Thomas
?The toughest competition right now … I think it?s Dangriga.?
The youths are all members of the Police Youth Cadet Corps. According to Inspector Diana Hall, Officer in Charge of the Cadet Corps, the annual camp provides the children with an opportunity to get to know their counterparts from around the country.
Inspector Diana Hall, Officer in Charge, Cadet Corps
?It?s just to get the youths together to have them to do something positive and to let them interact with one another.?
And it seems a lot of youths are doing something positive as the corps has been growing in leaps and bounds. In the last year alone the number of cadets increased from five hundred to eight hundred. Inspector Hall credits increased knowledge of the programme for the boom.
Inspector Hall
?I think they are hearing more about it and the other children tell their friends, especially in the Orange Walk District, we have a lot of villages that has the cadet.?
The children join the corps for different reasons.
Raymond McFadzean, Belize City Cadet
?It was my stepmother who is a W.P.C. in Belize City and she told me about this cadets, that it?s fun and so I try to join and one year ago I get my stripes to be a lance corporal. … That is my first thought, to be a police officer. My grandfather used to be it, so I try to follow in his footstep.?
Seventeen year old Conrad Thomas has been with the programme for two years. He was recruited by a friend.
Conrad Thomas, Youth Cadet, Cayo
?I just came and I liked it.?
Kendra Griffith
?What do you like about it??
Conrad Thomas
?Well, you get to meet friends, you have fun and you learn some discipline.?
Kendra Griffith
?Do you think that being in the cadets will help you in the future??
Conrad Thomas
?Yes definitely, definitely it?s something very constructive, it gives you something to do for a time worthwhile, and something good to do in the future.?
At only eleven years old, Pomona resident Yadira Argueta is already a three year veteran of the corps. This future cop lists crime fighting as her reason for becoming a member.
Yadira Argueta, Pomona Youth Cadets
?If you really listen to the news sometimes you hear they got different things weh di happen all around the place, you hear about people di do all kind of carnal knowleged to the younger ones.?
Kendra Griffith
?And how do you think the cadets will help with that??
Yadira Argueta
?I say woulda a seh that we the youths wah be the youths for the future and we wah could try stop the crimes weh di happen.?
And while some of the cadets eventually go on to become police officers, Orange Walk Instructor P.C. Wilfredo Petillo maintains that the initiative is not about recruitment.
P.C. Wilfredo Petillo, Instructor, O.W. Cadets
?So this programme isn?t a programme whereby you will train to become a police officer, this programme is for a cadet member to go on in life and to be very successful.?
Part of that success comes from keeping the youths out of trouble.
Inspector Diana Hall
?It helps them to motivate themselves that police officers are their friends and not their enemy. … I think it will help them to become better citizen. Instead of getting involved in crime they can be productive citizen.?
Kendra Griffith
?Is there any way that you all can measure the success of the cadets??
Inspector Diana Hall
?Presently yes, because we don?t have any of them getting into problems, that I can recall, and normally we have a lot of youths always involved with the law.?
With one hundred and ninety-five members, Orange Walk is the largest corps in the country.
P.C. Wilfredo Petillo, Instructor, O.W. Cadets
?This year we plan to increase; all the village to have a cadet youth corps, and increase the number as well of those that exist.?
And the existing members are encouraging others to get involved.
Raymond McFadzean
?I encourage lot more to come cause it?s fun, they learn you respect, and as I said they learn you to be a better citizen of Belize.?
But the children weren?t the only ones having fun … their instructors also got in the mix.
(Instructor singing and dancing the hokey pokey)
Kendra Griffith reporting for News Five.
The cadets will be awarded their trophies and medals at Saturday’s closing ceremony. If you would like to become a member of the Youth Cadet Corps, visit the nearest police station for details on how to sign up. The only requirement is that you must be between eight and seventeen years old.