NINE Macintyre High School students and distance education student Andrew Street were feted for completing the SES cadet program on Thursday, December 3.
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“It was fun,” newly-minted cadet Brooke Williams said.
She enjoyed the boat work where a dummy was cast out and the students organised a water rescue.
“We were in the boats out in the water, and searched because we were in teams,” Brooke said.
The students joined their Inverell High School counterparts for five days of training at Copeton Dam, learning skills and several kinds of search and rescue procedures from water and land.
Cadet Sam Chapman recalled a particularly challenging operation.
“He was like 100 kilos and we had to rescue him out of this tunnel, and we had to drag him out and balance him on a weight board thing,” she said.
Inverell deputy Unit Controller Joerg Gruenfeld said the program gave the students a profile of the emergency services, their core roles and flexibility within roles.
Sam said she was moving to Tenterfield at the end of the year and the SES cadet program looked interesting.
“I was leaving at the end of the year and I wanted to do something fun with my friends,” she said.
“When we looked at the brochures, it looked really cool, actually and it was something that you don’t learn every day.”
She felt one aspect of the experience was especially valuable.
“Teamwork, it was really good because I have to work with a team where I work and building team skills was a really good thing to do,” she said.
Macintyre principal Lindsay Paul believed it is important youth in their teenaged years are exposed to work done by volunteer organisations like emergency services.
“I think it’s really important that students are able to experience the sorts of things the SES and volunteering in general would offer, get out of their comfort zone,” he said.
Lindsay said former students had gone on from the cadet program to join the SES, and some from the recent group may do the same.
“Who knows what it would do in the future?” he asked.
“The sense of community comes from getting involved, and exposure to those sorts of things helps build community, and it’s really important to do that in young people.”
The SES is always looking for new and interested members, to learn more, phone 1800 201 000.
