Roger Knox - Vernon Morning Star Published: May 08, 2010 12:00 PM
So the academy is named after his late father. That doesn’t mean Kevin Minguy is getting special or preferred treatment as a cadet at the 11th annual RCMP Jean Minguy Memorial Youth Academy at the Vernon Army Camp. Take, for example, the making-the-bed inspection, a regular morning occurrence. “If anything, I think they’re being meaner to me,” laughed Kevin, 17, during a lunch break mid-week at the academy. “My bed’s gotten thrown out both times. The first time, my whole room was thrown apart. Yesterday, me and my buddy’s mattress looked identical but it was my mattress that was thrown over the floor.” Minguy, a Grade 12 student at Kalamalka Secondary, admits making a bed was a foreign concept to him before he attended the academy. He’d pretty much throw the sheets off him when his alarm went off and pull them back over him when he went to bed. Early-morning wake-ups from instructors, including one at 4:30 a.m., are also something new for the Vernon teen.“Apparently, we (cadets) did something wrong, maybe somebody said that one of the things we did wasn’t hard enough, and they flipped out and got us up at 4:30,” smiled Minguy. But getting up early, learning to make a bed with a coat hanger, learning how to march, getting experience with RCMP tools such as radar guns, practising defence tactics and participating in RCMP night scenarios have all been part of the academy, something Jean Minguy looked forward to every year.
The popular Vernon RCMP officer volunteered his time as an instructor at the academy. Kevin was 12 when his father drowned on-duty after falling off a police Zodiac boat on Okanagan Lake June 3, 2005. The pair had talked about Kevin joining the RCMP. “He said it wasn’t really a good idea because of the shift work, the stuff you see on the job and the whole job description,” said Kevin. “It always seemed like a good job to me.” “I think he’s happy I’m here doing it. I think he’d be pretty upset if I didn’t.” It was a family affair at the academy as Kevin’s mom, Carol, and younger brother, Colin, played roles in the RCMP training scenarios. “The family has expressed an interest in being part of the academy annually,” said Vernon RCMP school liaison officer Kathy Szoboticsanec, an instructor and one of the main organizers of the academy.“They would like to carry on the legacy left by Jean.”
The academy wrapped up Saturday morning with graduation ceremonies, and the 48 cadets saying their farewells to one another, the last time they were together as a team. “Kevin’s done really well,” said Szoboticsanec. “He’s learned what it’s like to work with a team and as a group. He spent a lot of time here with his dad, when he was an instructor, but I think being part of the academy as a cadet has been a different experience.” As Kevin pointed out mid-week, teamwork is the big theme at the academy. You meet in the morning in team lines. You march in those lines, march everywhere. A cadet is never by themselves walking. You get punished as a team. If somebody messes up, the whole team does push-ups. It was a rewarding experience, and Kevin is glad to have had the opportunity to attend the academy.But, like a lot of other soon-to-be-high-school-graduates, he hasn’t made up his mind if he’ll truly follow in his father’s footsteps. “I want to keep my options open,” he said.“I wanted to get a taste to see if this is what I want to do. The camp has been like that, to see if I really want to go through (RCMP training) depot.” The 48 Grade 11 and 12 students that took part in the academy is the highest turnout ever in its 11-year history. The cadets came from Vernon, Armstrong, Enderby, Lake Country, Kelowna, Summerland, Penticton, Salmon Arm, Kamloops and Clearwater.
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