East Bladen Cadets stand at attention at Bladen East Nursing Home.
ELIZABETHTOWN – The East Bladen JROTC program paid a visit to the Bladen East Nursing Home last Wednesday afternoon where they interacted with the residents of the nursing home, performed their cadence led by the lead cadets and ate lunch with residents while exchanging conversations. The cadets handed each residence a gift bag upon their visit and Sam Mote led his fellow cadets in reciting their cadence.
This effort to reach out to the residents of Bladen East was organized by cadets Sidney Armitage, Jamere Anders, Abanny Caceres, Eleia Garrett, Na’laya Gore, Anise Hall, Kamya Leach and Sam Mote. It took the lead cadets months in planning and preparation in order to execute their mission of bringing smiles to the faces of Bladen East Resident. “I have to say that most of the elderly people don’t get to talk to people very often and I think they really enjoyed it when we came over there,” said Garrett. “We met some pretty interesting folks and most of the time they seemed to be very interested in what we were doing.”
Garrett was hands-on with organizing the trip and she credits her other team leaders in coming together to make the visit a success. The elders shared their appreciation to the youth that came by to visit them by passing on nuggets of advice and former military veterans inside the nursing home gave the cadets pointers on how to execute their cadences better. “It feels good to get out and to help the community,” said Armitage proudly. “Opportunities like this show what ROTC can do for the community.”
The lead cadets were able to showcase their leadership skills and were also soaking up lessons for their future development. “Overall this experience taught us how to take charge and lead groups,” said Armitage. “We were going out and talking to new people…this can help with anxiety and help with putting ourselves out there more.” Armitage harped on the importance of ROTC forming future leaders and he feels Wednesday’s trip is a contributing factor. Cadet Anders also took the time to explain how leadership development can help his fellow cadets in the future.
“Going out and helping the community can help with applying for college,” said Anders. “Also, whenever you help someone in the community…you should feel warm inside because you’re helping someone who needs it.” Anders felt the opportunity to put a smile on the faces of the nursing home resident was enough reason for the cadets to smile themselves.
“Personally, this gave me some excitement and some pride because it actually makes me feel as if I’m doing something through this program,” said Motes.”Doing stuff like this makes me feel like I want to succeed even more.” Several cadets shared the same sentiments as Motes and most of the cadets left the nursing home Wednesday with new found motivation. Cadet Gore also felt pride in putting smiles on the faces of the elderly and she plans to build upon this experience in the future as well.
Cadet Hall shared a connection with Bladen East as she used to visit her grandma at the residency before she passed. “This day was really different for me since it was my first time there since my grandma passed,” said Hall.”I feel like it’s always good to go back and visit people not related to you because you never know what their situation is with their families.” Hall plans to take the conversations she shared with residency and use it to her advantage as she continues her growth.
East Bladen’s JROTC plan to continue giving back to their community with more trips and charitable work in the future.