While March Break is typically seen as a time for rest and relaxation before tackling the last of the school semester, a group of Grade 11 and 12 students used it to push themselves to new heights.
On Saturday morning, their friends and family were able to see the fruits of their labour as the 32 members of Troop 10 graduated from the RCMP's Youth Academy at Kelly Road secondary school.
Minister of Justice and Prince George-Valemount MLA Shirley Bond was on hand to witness the troop's drill display and pass out their graduation certificates during the March 24 ceremony. She said she was looking forward to seeing some of the young people in the RCMP's ranks down the road.
"We're looking at the future of the RCMP in this gym today," she said.
She also announced that $5,100 in civil forfeiture grant funding was going to help support the youth academy.
"We're taking the proceeds of crime and turning it into something positive," Bond said.
For a week, the group of young men and women lived at the Handlen Road school where they endured 5:45 a.m. wake up calls and days filled with physical fitness training, police scenarios and justice education.
Fifty students from within the RCMP's North District applied for the opportunity to be a part of the academy's 10th annual session.
"Our application process starts in November," explained Bruce Northrop, career co-ordinator with School District 57. Northrop also spent the week at the school with the students.
He said the ideal candidates for the program have to be physically fit, honesty, have integrity, but most of all, be resilient.
"They have to run when they are hurting, they have to run when they are sick. They have to do what they're told," he said.
The week generally serves to cement any interest young people might have in pursuing a career in policing or identify that it's probably not something they want to do.
Either way, they leave the program with eyes opened.
Taylor Braet, 17, came to the program with a keen interest in policing. His older brother, Const. Drew Padgett, recently became an RCMP member and travelled from his detachment in Hope to watch his younger brother's graduation.
"It was pretty much him that really inspired me," Braet said of his brother, who was a member of the RCMP auxiliary for three years.
Despite the hard work he encountered during his own week of training, the Grade 11 student who also spent his summer as a leader-in-training at Ness Lake Bible Camp said he was still going to follow the path.
"The fire's still there. I'm definitely still very interested in doing this for a career."
Braet is just one of what auxilliary Const. David Phillips calls "absolutely fantastic kids" who come through the program.
"They're a bunch of kids who should be normal, but are exceptional," he said. "They're motivated, they're happy kids. We took every bit of energy out of them, but still, they never got angry."
Phillips, who said he would have been a member of the RCMP had life not taken him down a different path, said he comes back every year to help co-ordinate the youth academy because of the appreciation he has for the federal police force and the joy he gets out of working with young people.
"I like to think I had a hand getting them on the right path," said Phillips.
Also putting the students through their paces is Special Const. Davy Greenlees, who said it was heartbreaking to have to send any of the troop members home due to illness.
"I really enjoy seeing the difference between day one and the last graduation day. When their parents see them again, they're totally different kids."
