Getting into the Olympic spirit

By Mo Cranker on February 19, 2018.

mcranker@medicinehatnews.com @MHNmocranker

It was a day of fun activities and bonding for the city’s three cadet groups, as they held their first-ever Tri-Service Olympics.

The day was designed around bringing Medicine Hat’s air, army and sea cadets to play some games together, and to learn different skills as a group.

“Today we’re trying out a Tri-Service Olympic-style event,” said Sea Cadet executive officer and Sub-Lt. Clint Lawrence. “We’ve got about six stations set up, doing things ranging from orienteering, rigging a sailboat and some leadership activities.”

Lawrence says the idea behind the event was to bring the three groups together, something that normally wouldn’t happen.

“We really wanted to bring the three groups to get to know each other,” he said. “Getting them to be a bit social, and to engage in some teambuilding exercises was really important for us. Also, getting them together and just having fun and learning together was really important for us, too.”

Army cadet Chais Varga says the social aspect of the day was the highlight for him.

“Just meeting different people is really good,” he said. “Seeing the other groups, hearing what the know and seeing how they treat each other has been a really good experience.”

Air cadet Izaiah Nickel echoed Varga’s thoughts on the afternoon of fun.

“I think this is a really great event,” he said. “There’s a lot of people coming together today that normally wouldn’t have. I know a lot of the other cadets from school, but we don’t interact that much as cadets. It’s been really great to bond with other cadets and get rid of that rivalry we usually have.”

Lawrence says the group hopes to do more events like this in the future.

“We’re already hearing from people asking what we’re going to do next year,” he said. “So I guess we’re going to have to one-up what we did this year.”

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