The Trust’s complimentary association with the Stourbridge Platoon of the Army Cadets Force has been going for 2 years now and has proved to be mutually very beneficial. Visitors to the recent Open Weekend would have seen the local platoon being highly visible either at their recruitment stand or helping out around the site during the course of both days. All of this voluntary work is great evidence to support their contribution to “community activity” for Duke of Edinburgh awards, so counts for not only the platoon but also for individual cadets aspiring towards this hard earned and prestigious award.
In exchange for their valued efforts a number of “Tuesday Club” volunteers down at the Bonded Warehouse have, over the last year, carefully tooled an armoury of wooden rifles which were in short supply and would have cost a lot of money to have been commercially produced. The work was quite intricate actually as there are some very tight angles to cut and a good amount of detail in the wooden weapons.
The Trust was delighted to receive a “Thank You” card from the platoon with the message “Dear Stourbridge Navigation Trust Volunteers, thank you for all your hard work producing wooden rifles for our Cadets. They are outstanding quality and really enhance training. As you can see in the covering photograph they will be well used, best Wishes, Stourbridge Platoon, Army Cadet Force.”
The photograph above shows the SNT Chairman, David Caunt, who has personally spent a lot his time helping to produce the rifles, lined up with a number of Cadets sporting the new rifles.
We look forward to continuing our effective working relationship with Stourbridge Platoon in the coming years.