It
was more than your average summer for JROTC.
While
most students stayed home plugged into their phones until late at night, sleeping
away the daylight hours, Taylor’s JROTC cadets spent a week in June doing
things that gave them memories for life.
JROTC
cadets each year attend a free, week-long summer camp in Alpena where they
climb rock walls, paddle across rivers, rappel off of towers and buildings,
ride in helicopters, camp out for a night, build an air-powered rocket, shoot
pellet rifles, and learn to find their way through the woods using a map and
compass.
Perhaps
best of all, they disconnect from social media and deal with people
face-to-face for five days. This
summer camp is known as JROTC Cadet Leadership Challenge (JCLC).
This
year 13 Taylor students attended the optional camp, joining more than 600 other
cadets from around Michigan. The
students were mixed together and organized into units, with cadets given
leadership positions that rotated each day. The experienced cadre of JROTC instructors and military
personnel closely supervised the cadets, and helped the cadets learn how give
instructions and motivate their teams to get things done.
The
five days start early and end late, the cadets walk everywhere they go, and
most of the activities are physical. JCLC, like life, is easier if a student is
physically strong and agile. Our cadets had an edge over those of most other
schools because of the physical conditioning we do as part of the JROTC
program.
Cadet
Logan Blevins said, “We had no physical problem completing any of the
activities. Our weekly workouts
really helped.”
Taylor
junior Anthony Sims observed that, “I had a hard time, but it was fun. I
learned a lot.”
Another
participant, junior Dalton Buck, said, “I learned that no matter how hard
something may seem, if you keep at it, you will succeed.”
These
comments are echoed by many JCLC participants.
One
thing that many participants found difficult at first was giving up their cell
phone for one week. Participants
at JCLC must hand over their cell phones during their time at the camp. While most students cannot imagine life
unplugged from the Internet and social media, students at JCLC soon realized that
actually doing things is much more enjoyable that reading posts about other
people doing things.
Cadet
Chris Elliott cannot wait to return next summer: “I was voted as the runner up
for Best Cadet in my Company this past summer. This coming summer I intend to take home the top spot.”
Regardless
of what awards and recognition individual cadets receive, all agree that they
had fun, and learned a lot about themselves and others. What summer activity beats that?
