A service project performed by the Central Alberta Cadet Camporee 2014 has just wrapped at JJ Collett Natural Area near Morningside. On July 23rd the Camporee consisting of 670 boys ages 11-13, and 530 adult supervisors, councillors, medical and support staff arrived at Kamp Lone Pine located on a farm southwest of Lacombe. They were from all across Canada and the United States.
Plans for this project began over a year ago when a JJ Collett board member was contacted by the Camporee organizing committee. At first the reaction was wow, the sheer numbers! What would we have them do?
How could we coordinate such a large number of workers in such a vast area? However, as we looked at it closer and broke the numbers into smaller groups, divided by the number of days and again by the number of groups per day, we decided it was doable.
On the morning of July 24th the first of six groups of 108 boys and 12 staff arrived at JJ Collett. They were divided into cadres, assigned tasks, and sent off on the trails with a map, supplies and tools, their supervisors, medics, and a JJ Collett volunteer. As a special project several JJ Collett volunteers prepared a section of new trail for the boys to complete.
The service project concluded July 29th. In just a few days 20 kms of trail had been trimmed, over 250 bags of weeds had been picked and removed, five new park benches had been built and installed on the trails and two gazebos had received a new coat of stain. In addition the main staging area was trimmed, widened and cleaned up. By the time the service project was completed, the cadets and their supervisors had given over 1,000 hours of volunteer labour to the JJ Collett Natural Area.
The hard working and dedicated JJ Collett volunteers namely, Janie and Howard Bradley, Chris and Keith Meyers, Gail Hughes, Rhonda Easton, Severin Iseli, and Roger Stawart wish to thank The Central Alberta Cadet Camporee 2014, for making JJ Collett Natural Area an even more beautiful place. We are forever grateful.
As a way of recognizing the generous contribution of the boys from the Cadet Camporee, the newly completed trail will be named in their honour Kamp Lone Pine Trail 2014.
Roger Stewart
Vice president, JJ Collett Natural Area Foundation
Ponoka