Anyone following figure skating will have heard of Caitlin Jarvis. For many years Caitlin successfully represented the Sunshine Coast at local, regional and provincial figure skating events. She was a national award winner as well as a torchbearer for the 2010 Olympics.
The life skills she learned through skating have been serving her well off the ice as she continues on her exceptional journey through the sea cadet program and preparing for a future in the Canadian Forces. Recently Caitlin was the only sea cadet chosen to participate in the Beaverbrook Vimy Ridge Foundation Scholarship, where she and 14 other students from across Canada spent part of August visiting England, France, and Belgium studying Canada’s First World War effort. The scholarship presented numerous classroom as well as field trip opportunities while visiting important WWI sites, ending at the Canadian National Vimy Memorial, with the moving statue of Mother Canada.
Right before Caitlin left on the Vimy Ridge Scholarship, she was informed that she had also been selected as one of 12 Sea Cadets who will go to England at the beginning of September to participate in a three-week deployment and training opportunity on the TS Royalist, a tall ship which is routinely used for sea cadet training in the U.K. Caitlin will take her turn at watch as well as be assigned a ship position while aboard. There will be no Internet, no cellphones, and no luxury.
Participants are chosen based on their exceptional deportment and training throughout the year. Jarvis currently holds the rank of chief petty officer 2nd class and is hoping for a promotion in the new year. She also has the distinction of being a Legion Medal of Honour recipient as well as a Divisional Royal Canadian Sea Cadet of the Year award winner. She has recently finished her third and final leg of the Duke of Edinburgh Award, which took her three and a half years to complete. She will be receiving her silver award in November at Government House in Victoria and is waiting for word of when the gold awards will be distributed in B.C. She attributes her success in the Duke of Edinburgh Award to both figure skating and cadets, as both had the skillsets needed for her to successfully navigate the DoE program.
Caitlin, who is 17 years old and a student at Elphinstone Secondary School, recommends the cadet program to anyone eligible. She says that nowhere else can you get training, uniforms, camp opportunities, specialized training such as scuba or sailing certifications, as well as the opportunity for foreign exchanges or deployments like hers, at absolutely no charge to the participant. She says sea cadets has instilled a great feeling of pride for Canada as well as cemented her leadership skills that began at a young age in skating. The fact that she is moving on to the Canadian Forces is not something that is an expectation or commitment from Cadets; however, with a family history in the Navy, it was a natural progression for Caitlin.
Sea cadets & Navy League will resume in September, and although CPO2 Jarvis will not be in attendance for the startup, she assures us that there are other capable and willing cadets to step up and assume leadership roles while she is away. She encourages anyone interested to either find the Gibsons Sea Cadets on Facebook or simply show up to a meeting on Wednesday evenings, 6:30 p.m., at the Gibsons Legion.
– Submitted
