News

13^th February 2013

What were you doing on Christmas morning?

Junior Cadet Courtney Openshaw and her mum joined others for a Christmas morning dip at the Pier in Walton on the Naze.

Dressed in their onesies, they braved the cold and charged into the sea!!!!!

Courtney raised £60 for the Junior Cadets.  The cheque was handed over to OiC Juniors, PO (SCC) Lesley Monk, together with photographic evidence of the moment of madness.

Well done Courtney :O)

TS Illustrious are please to announce that Petty Officer Cadet Andrews has acheived an ‘A’ grade pass mark and been formal acceptanced into the Royal Engineers.  

POC Andrews commented, that his experiences and skills gained in the Sea Cadets and at the Frimley Park Leadership Course prepared him for his final assessment course.

Congratulations from all the Staff and Cadets!

A big thank you to the store managers at Frinton Fiveways Coop and Iceland for allowing the Cadets to bag pack for 4 days in the lead up to Christmas.

A incredible £3964.52 was kindly donated!

Thank you for to all the customers ‘our community’ for their continuing support of the young people who attend Walton Sea Cadets!

Monies raised will help towards the running costs of our Unit and fund cadet opportunities throughout 2013.

11^th December 2013

Surprise surprise for the outgoing Unit Treasurer David Mason when he attended a quiet family dinner at the Victory public house in Walton on the Naze. David must have thought it was a bit strange that the bar was full of his old Sea Cadet chums obviously deep in conversation trying their best to ignore their intended victim!!

Just as David finished his desert, the Unit Commanding Officer turned around from the bar to call for everyones attention and to present David with an engraved tankard and Certificate of Appreciation signed by the Captain of the Sea Cadet for his 11 years of stirling work as Unit Treasurer.

David said; “I was taken by surprise and it was a very pleasant shock. It was a great pleasure helping the Cadets and working with all of you”.

5^th December 2013

TS Illustrious Cadet Presentation Evening was held at the Columbine Centre in Walton on the Naze.  For the 3rd year this special evening has had an Oscar twist, this year the glitz, sparkle and surprise was raised even further with the cadets receiving their own personal invitations.  As the cadets arrived into the hall they found they were seated on dressed over numbered tables with nibbles and soft drinks.  Nearly 200 parents, grandparents and VIP’s were seated in the tiered seating behind ready for the evening to start.  

The formalities got underway with the Guest of Honour London Area Officer Cdr John Greene RN and Unit Commanding Officer Gary Dodd RNR being escorted onto the stage by the glamorous assistants APO Hannah Bettany and PCI Christie Steel.  

With the introduction music of ‘cry me a river’ the presentation evening was under way! 

First up was the a short video with Capt Mark Windsor, National Booking Team, CEO Martin Coles and LtCdr Nick Moulton giving their apologies that they could not join the cadets on their special evening. 

With the aid of video powerpoint the cadet nominations for each category was displayed on the TV with Cdr Greene announcing the winners.  In between the awards the cadets and guests were treated to two extra videos giving an overview of the years activities ranging from Royal Naval Parade to the Queen’s Diamond River Pageant and the International Exchange to Bermuda.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZI_rPnUbr4&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGZkgVWQ-tQ&feature=plcp

Throughout the evening a stunning 35 awards were presented to the Sea Cadets/Royal Marine Cadets and Junior Sea Cadets.

The last award of the evening was the much anticipated ‘Cadet of the Year’.  As the nominations for this award were called out, Lt Dodd paused for a second, the cadets replied with a spontaneous drum roll as Cdr Greene announced Leading Cadet Domonic Jacobs as the 2012 winner with a massive round of applause!  Domonic was presented with his trophy along with a 11” gold Oscar statue.  Also every year the Frinton and Walton Royal Naval Association present the winner with an engraved bosun call.

As the evening was brought to a close, Cdr Greene announced his own surprise that Walton Sea Cadets had been awarded the Stephenson Trophy by becoming the TOP unit in London Area (best out of 45 units).  This is the 5th year in a row that this top award has been presented to TS Illustrious.

Lt Dodd said, this has been the best presentation evening EVER!

This Years Winners are:

Best Attendance              OC Winter & AC Goldsmith

Best Logbook Entry          Cdt Wyzkowski

Best Dressed Junior          AC Milnes (awarded as an OC)

Best Dressed Senior          AC Goldsmith

Best New Entry                Cdt Wang

Best Junior Cadet             OC Newland E

Offshore - Henry Britain     AC Ranson

Boatwork Trophy              AC Marsden

Ship Husbandry                AC Webb

Jack Petchey Awards         MC2 O’Connell & AC Durmarque

Paddlesport Awards           AC Marsden, MC Rothery & MC Brown A

Endeavour Thophy            MC2 Quick

Merchant Navy Ass            AC Hawes

Shooting Trophy               AC Hawes

Junior Sea Cadet Awards:

Attendance                     JC Homes-Gifford

Piping Thophy                  LJC Hamblion

Best Dressed                   JCFC Von Kanael & JCFC Robinson-Shaw

Wardrobe Malfunction        JCFC Depuy

Junior Endeavour              LJC Horlock

Community Award            LJC Diss

Royal Marine Cadets:

Best Dressed Marine          MC Newman

MCD Award                     MC2 Fisher

Commando Memorial         MC2 Quick

CPO Steve Whitby (Offshore):

Best Shipwreck                Cdt Swarbrick

Young Jack AwardJ           CFC Elliott

Beaumont Award              Cdt Lomas

Illustrious Award               AC Rainbird

Royalist Berth                  AC Webb

Leadership Trophy             POC Andrews

Staff Trophy                    APO Wilkinson

TTC Shield                      POC Andrews

Junior - Cadet of the Year   Cdt Brook

CADET of the YEAR           LC Jacobs