Visit to Brentwood Sea Cadets
The Master, along with the Charity Committee Chairman John Ellery, Past Master Michael Wren and Committee Member Richard Martin visited the Brentwood Sea Cadets recently and were made most welcome by the unit. A number of the more senior Cadets have "aged out" and have moved on. Some are hoping to join the Royal Navy and several new ones have joined in 2019. The unit has a waiting list, and the limiting factor is the number of adults they have. This is a great change from about three years ago when the unit almost had to be closed. The difference is the leadership and drive of PO Sam Haywood, a mum persuaded to become a leader. Despite the churn in personnel they were awarded their 2019 Burgee and the Killick Trophy for the second best unit in the London District. They were also awarded the Offshore Trophy for the unit showing the best commitment to off-shore training; and this is almost exclusively where the Bowyers' donation is used. The Chairman made the point that next year's donation had already been earmarked for five cadets to go offshore on TS Royalist. Finally the Divisional Officer, Lt Cdr Rowland, characterised the Unit as "very happy one". And this was obvious from everything we saw. PO Haywood said that what drove her was the light in the eyes of cadets as they completed a task and achieved what they had set out to do. We saw that light as well, in the faces of the cadets in a very happy and successful unit.
Richard Martin
Charity Committee
Archived event reports
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