Meet Aneka Reid

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written by the Reid Family

Aneka Reid

Living on a farm with four older siblings, this 6th grade student is no stranger to hard work or having fun. She enjoys participating in the township cleanup, playing piano, and doing announcements at school – although she is looking forward to joining her older sister next year at a new school. She also loves singing, dancing, hanging out with her friends, and just having fun. And that’s how her journey with cadets started.

Just over a year ago, Aneka joined the Navy League Cadet Corps ASSINIBOINE in Kemptville so that she and a friend could spend more time together. She quickly found that cadets had more to offer than just a social gathering. Given her love of helping others, she was incredibly happy when she got to join her new corps in helping sort and organize food at the local area Food Bank. She also took it upon herself to learn a new skill – Semaphore (signaling messages with flags) and quickly made the corps team. Together with her new friends, she spent several weeks preparing for competition: learning various knots and their functions, reviewing basic training and seamanship; but her favorite by far was Semaphore. She got to travel to Ottawa for a day of competition against other cadet corps from the Ottawa area in a variety of skills; an experience that everyone enjoyed.

Although the COVID-19 pandemic prevented the Cadets from continuing to meet in person, Aneka persevered and, through virtual learning with the corps, was promoted to Able Cadet. She also continued to practice Semaphore at home and earned her Semaphore badge. Although she found it challenging to remember the positions with the ranks at first, she is now a lot better and moves in sync with the others whilst marching. This year, she continues to meet virtually with the other cadets, learning a variety of communications skills like Morse Code and is working on earning her Communications badge – awarded to those who demonstrate excellence in BOTH Semaphore and Morse Code.

She is really enjoying Cadets so far, and is hoping that they can meet in person again soon.

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