Families, friends and special guests crowded Dunkirk High School’s cafeteria May 15 to share in the cadets’ achievements.

The program began with the posting of the colors (placing of the American flag at the event) followed closely by the Pledge of Allegiance and an invocation by SFC Frank Torain. LTC Russel Clark welcomed everyone and an enormous dinner was served.

The JROTC program recognizes that not all cadets have the same abilities and skills and the Army designed its awards program to recognize as many personal traits as possible in cadets. There are two kinds of awards; unit awards, that recognize unit excellence and individual awards, that recognize personal achievement.

The focus of the banquet was to focus on individual awards where two types of individual awards were provided: Institutional Awards, which are provided by the Army JROTC unit and National Awards, which come from patriotic and civil organizations for outstanding academic and military achievements. These awards are most times in the form of a ribbon, medal or other decoration that is worn on the uniform of the cadet.

OBSERVER Photo by Jo Ward SFC Frank Torain speaks with a cadet following the Dunkirk JROTC end-of-year banquet.

Some of the Institutional Awards are the Esprit De Corps Ribbon, Student Government Ribbon, Proficiency Ribbon, Adventure Training Ribbon and Service Learning Ribbon, just to name a few; each of these had several recipients. Other ribbons celebrate athletics, attendance, involvement in JROTC special teams and academic achievements.

The highlight award, however, is the cadet of the year. Throughout the year, a cadet is chosen as the most outstanding each quarter. From those four the recipient is chosen and this year it was Andre Mendez, who proved to be the most prepared, confident and diligent cadet of the unit.

The National Awards included the Disabled American Veterans Scholarship Awards which went to Emma Goetz and Zakery DeLong, the Reserve Officer Association award, given to Elias Martinez, the American Legion Award for Scholastic Excellence, presented to Jada Santiago, the American Legion Award for General Military Excellence awarded to Colmari Garcia, the US Army Recruiting Command Award, presented to Destiny Marrero, the Sons of the American Revolution award, given to Owen-John Smith, the Daughters of the American Revolution, presented to Emma Goetz, the Military Orders of the World Wars, awarded to Zakery DeLong, the Military Officers Association of America, given to Alicia Rodriguez, the 2nd Brigade Region Essay Contest Winner was Alegria Solares and the Superior Cadet Awards recipients (one from each LET level 1-4) were Samantha Burgos, Michael Porpiglia, Alegria Solares and Joseph Tilly.