When Olds' Amanda Hepp learned she was accepted to a weeklong RCMP Youth Camp in Saskatchewan, one of the first people she told was her grandfather.
“I'm kind of doing it for him,” she said, adding her grandfather served as a Mountie. “He was really proud of me when I told him I got accepted.”
Hepp, 17, said the possibility of following in her grandfather's footsteps has special significance now, as he is battling Stage 4 lung cancer.
“I think that it would be cool to do what he did.”
She said he has given her some of the pins he received when he was with the RCMP and when she returns from the camp, which runs from August 12 to 16, she plans to share stories with him about her time there.
“I'm excited to tell him all about it when I get home.”
A guidance counsellor at Olds High School brought the camp concept to her attention through an email sent out to the school's graduating class last spring.
Hepp applied for a position at the camp, was interviewed and received notice at the end of May that she was one of 32 high school students from Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the Northwest Territories selected to head to the camp, which is held at the RCMP Academy in Regina.
She said she was told 132 students from Alberta applied for a position at the camp and only 14 were accepted.
A career in the RCMP is a possibility Hepp is considering, as she is attending Mount Royal University in Calgary in the fall to study criminal justice.
“I think it would just be really cool just to do that,” she said. “There'd be so much action all the time. You wouldn't have to see the same thing every day. “Because I don't want a job that would be the same thing over and over again.”
She added she is also looking forward to seeing the training process for becoming a Mountie.
“It's a pretty awesome opportunity to go and see the whole camp. I could really learn something from doing that.”
According to an RCMP media release, the students selected to attend the camp were picked “based on academic achievement and their interest in a career in policing.”
The participants will learn skills in police defensive tactics, firearms skills on a virtual range, driving on an advanced driving track and drill marching.
“While at camp, students will be issued RCMP uniform kit to wear, including a duty belt, uniform pants, and an RCMP T-shirt,” the release states. “In addition to this uniform, they will be expected to act as a troop-in-training by being up early, keeping their dorms clean and in order, and behaving professionally as representatives of the RCMP.”
