Distinguished Community Service Organization

When was the last time you were challenged to test your limits? If you are a Sea Cadet, it would be all in a day's work. And we are proud to report that these find young people are making a difference in their community as they learn basic seamanship, discipline, and personal accountability. 

Sound great, don't they? Well, that's because they are. The Sacramento Sea Cadets, an organization for young people age 13 through high school graduation, are so polished, dedicated and disciplined, you almost forget they are teens.

In Rancho Cordova, this group of young men and women came to the service of Kid's Day, arriving on a Friday night and assisting with set-up until 11 p.m. They then set up camp and established shifts for team members to remain on watch overnight to ensure the security of all items for the event. 

At 7 a.m. on event day, the entire group made themselves available to help in any capacity needed. They put finishing touches on the set up, directed traffic, helped exhibitors unload supplies and delivered them to their booths, helped manage lines at free attractions, picked up garbage, responded to questions at the info booth and on and on.

When it was over, they did the whole routine in reverse. Over the course of the 26 hours they were on site, they racked up more than 750 volunteer hours.

Between May and August this same group of cadets could be found throughout the region, helping out wherever help was needed: placing flags on graves of veterans on Memorial Day and visiting veterans at retirement homes; raising money and providing 564 hours of support to Relay for Life of Folsom; passing out water to runners in Land Park's Infant Mortality Run.

They were back in Rancho Cordova in September at the California Capital Airshow, stepping up to provide security at the front gates when an adult Air Force unit was diverted at the last minute. In addition to ensuring no one went in without a ticket, they searched entrants to ensure no contraband items were being brought in.

They finished off their year by providing 63 hours of labor to the Senior Gleaners, packing food items for several charity organizations in Sacramento.

Most impressively, all of these activities were accomplished while maintaining their grades in school and while participating in weekend and week-long training camps and other mandated Sea Cadet activities throughout the year.

They tested their limits, indeed.

The Sea Cadets benefit from strong, caring adults who act as role models in the very finest sense of the word. Nobody is more important in this leadership than Curtis Gant, the tireless mentor to the Sea Cadets, whose contribution to the cause is truly changing lives.

The award for Distinguished Community Service Organization is most important to the Cordova Community Council because it is Rancho Cordova's "organization of organizations." 

So it is with great pride, this prestigious award is presented to Curtis Gant and the young men and women of the Sacramento Sea Cadets who regularly test their limits and remind us that we should do the same.