Having stepped in to fill the breach at the Melrose 7s when 1^st Btn. Royal Regiment of Scotland had to delay their arrival and helping to raise almost £3,000 the Cadets from 2180 (Galashiels) Sq were asked by Poppyscotland if they would help out at the Hearts & Heroes Challenge Race from Tibbie Shiels Inn to the Greenyards in Melrose – a distance of 29 gruelling miles.

All funds raised by the event will be shared by the Hearts & Heros and the rugby charity Hearts and Balls.

Sgt Mrak Robertson , Cpl Robbie Leeson & Cdt Russell Hogarth

Thinking - DoE Bronze - Community Service - 10 Cadets arrived at the Greenyards ready to start a 9 hour shift.  The Gold team stayed at the Greenyards with the Silver Team heading off, courtesy of Megabus to Yair, for the Silver Finish.

Shift tables, set out the bins, fill water bowsers then result! The Gold team were tasked with preparing 500 goodie bags all to be filled from a mountain of Caramel Wafers, Tunnocks Tea Cakes and 600 bags of crisps! Cadet heaven – and by the way chaps help yourself the man said!

Then it was to the Finish line to unwrap 500 Gold Medals.

What we didn’t know at that time was that we were about to be asked to staff the finish line, checking in the competitors and awarding medals. So after a packed lunch courtesy of Poppyscotland it was to the Finish Line with Air Cadets taking pole position.

In front of a growing crowd of supporters, photographers and organisers Cpl Robbie Leeson was tasked with presenting the first Gold Medal to the first Competitor to cross the line, Cadets from 2180 presented just fewer than 200 Gold Medals.

What of the Silver team?  A day of car parking , Hospitality tent, goodie bag packing, presenting Silver Medals and handing out refreshments to runners heading to the Gold Finish then back to Melrose for PR Photo Shoot with Cadets presenting commemorative medals to the Megabus team and a hot three course meal with the Gold team courtesy of Poppyscotland.

Sgt ATC Irene Wielbo, IC Gold Team, explained: “We were really happy to contribute to the Challenge by providing some Cadet helpers. We will record it as Community Service and we wanted the Squadron to be seen in public at a very high profile local event. We didn’t realise that Poppyscotland had decided that we were to be given such prominent jobs as a reward for the fund raising done by Cadets from 2180 at  the Melrose 7s and their efforts on Poppy Saturday last year when they raised over £3000. The work given to the teams was meaningful, varied and extremely high profile. Being asked to award the first medal was a thrill and an honour for Cpl Leeson and the hospitality given to the teams by Poppy Scotland was really great. Filling 500 goodie bags was daunting at first but after a quick dose of SMEAC the team quickly set to the task  by setting up a production line. Sadly a number of tea cakes, caramel wafers and bags of crisps perished during the exercise but the Team felt that they had a duty to do some quality assurance testing prior to issuing the bags:-))!”

Posted by OC2180 on Sunday 16 May 2010 - 18:36:57 | |