Ms. Curley Room Cleaning
On April 5th, A small group of cadets gathered in room 106 after school hours to help Ms. Curley clean and organize her room so she could prepare for the Little Shop Of Horrors play and fun class activities. We painted the walls, cleaned the floors and tables, and stored unnecessary props and costumes. We did our best to clean her room as best we could so she could have a nice clean and organized classroom. Cadets enjoyed hanging out and working on her room with C/Lyall stating: “I enjoyed helping Ms. Curley and making her classroom look nice for her classes”.
“It felt nice being able to finally clean up Ms. Curley's room after hearing that the janitors don't clean her room and it hasn't been cleaned in a few years. ”- C/Matthes
Corn Hole Painting
On Tuesday March 19th, The cadets gathered in the Garden City High School Atheltic Hall of Fame next to the lobby to paint cornhole boards that would be sold in the school store. We split into groups of two to maximize efficiently and got one roller brush and one regular paint brush to paint the boards. We managed to paint over half the boards during the first day and the cadets had fun while doing it. The cadets were looking forward to completing all the boards and seeing the design that will be put on them.
“The cadets are excited to see the corn hole boards that they painted be sold in the school store" - C/Matthes
Middle School Recruitment Trip
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On 2/28/24, The AFJROTC Recruitment Team went to the Middle School to recruit 8th graders to join the AFJROTC program in the 2024/25 school year. Our recruiting team had the 8th graders do a few activities such as paper airplane making, icebreakers, and then we had them test how far the paper airplanes could fly. C/Bender showed off a couple rifle tricks to promote our drill team. C/SSgt Canty stated- “We got to see some of our current cadets family members and got to recruit a lot of fun new faces. I'm just glad we got to see the Middle School and all of its redecorations. The presentation was done well and we did amazing and I'm happy that we got to meet all of the new people.” Overall, the 8th graders seemed to heavily enjoy the presentation and now have a better understanding on what AFJROTC is about.
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Howell Drill Meet
“Our unit exceeded our own expectations” - C/2nd Lt Vargo
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Cadets competed in Howell’s drill meet, bringing home 6 different trophies and several knockout awards. This was the first competition where MI-861 presented an Armed and Unarmed Exhibition routine in, placing third in both categories. The cadets were excited about how we performed with C/Vargo stating “Our unit exceeded our own expectations”. And C/Thompson saying “I had a great time”.
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Swim Timers
“Swim timers was a swaggy and great time to help out and have fun” C/1st Lt Bush
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Swim Timers was a new community service event for AFJROTC and the school, which turned out to be a very fun activity for cadets. This time cadets got to time the boy’s swim team during their season instead of the girls. These community service events took place at every swim meet during the season, between the months of December through the beginning of February where cadets were able to come and actively support their school swim team as well as cheer on C/Roberts and C/Vargo who are members of the swim team and MI-861 cadets. Cadets learned various swimming techniques and how to score them, and helped the team improve their speed. C/Harnos recalled that, “Swim timers was a swaggy and great time to help out and have fun”. It was a true joy watching students bond with the school and helping the senior swimmers have such a marvelous final season.
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Miracle Minute
“It was nice to see how generous the different classes were.” C/1st Lt Bush
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The Miracle Minute was an event held by Garden City High School’s Key Club, with our unit being invited to participate. During the pep assembly, it was announced on the loudspeaker that the Miracle Minute was about to be held. The cadets and Key Club members ran around the stands with buckets collecting money for the Kids Against Hunger program where proceeds are donated to a local food bank. After that, they counted all the money from the different classes and determined that the seniors donated the most. They later were congratulated over the loudspeaker during our winter pep assembly. It proved to be a fun event with people such as C/Bush, who is both a cadet and a member of Key Club stating: “It was nice to see how generous the different classes were.”
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Purple Bag Challenge
“It was a nice way for the cadets to hang out after school” - C/Vargo
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After School on January 30, several cadets gathered to fold and wrap garbage bags for Garden City’s Purple Bag Challenge, a program where citizens of Garden City are incentivized to collect garbage and help pick up their city. Many cadets found the event to be laid back and fun with C/Reest stating “It was very fun and a lot of cadets got to socialize with each other.” The cadets had to learn a special technique from C/Vargo and people from city hall to fold the bags with gloves and a postcard to be mailed back to the city so the person cleaning up garbage would receive credit for their work. Unlike most community service events, the Purple Bag Challenge was held in the JROTC classroom right after school, making it much more laid back and an easy way to help the community and support the unit with C/Vargo stating: “It was a nice way for the cadets to hang out after school”. We are always happy to support our community and city hall however we can.
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Military Ball
“I had a great time for my first event! Very interesting to say the least.” - C/2nd Lt OJ1
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The 2024 Military Ball was a huge success for cadets! The planning of this event was a huge challenge, but with an amazing committee we pulled through. To start off the event cadets lined up went through the receiving line, shaking hands with our VIP’s of the night. After cadets shook hands, they went through a saber arch and got their photo taken, which they then made their way over to our second arch, which was made out of balloons, and got their photo taken once more. Once everyone found their seats we opened up with welcomes and started our military traditions presented by our own MI-861 drill team. After dinner was brought out and everyone talked with the people around them and passed food around the table. The banquet style dinner was a hit! Many had at least 3 helpings of the wonderful mac and cheese, along with some delicious chicken, potatoes, and brownies for dessert. With cadets full we started getting ready for our introductions to court, girls starting first one by one we walked down the arch path with roses in hand to cross our fingers on getting elected queen. The boys walked down the arch path next wondering who would be elected king. C/Langer was crowned queen and received a bouquet a white roses and her crown for the night, C/Bender was crowned king and received his crown for the night. Right after that a few quick words were said and then the dance floor was open to dance on. Line dances took over most of the night with older cadets teaching newer cadets how to do it. The rest of the night was spent dancing and laughing while enjoying the 2024 Military Ball.
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Band Concert Ushers
Card Making
“Fun seeing a bunch of people/cadets coming together to wish people a Happy Holidays” -C/2nd Lt Scott
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On November 29th cadets came together to make Holiday Cards or Get well soon cards for the patients at Garden City Hospital who will unfortunately be sick for the holidays. We got creative adding our own personal messages, notes, Christmas decorations and symbols of positivity on the cards.. Other clubs from the school were invited such as Key Club joined in the card making. Many of the cadets got to hang out as well as with C/Scott saying: “Fun seeing a bunch of people and cadets coming together to wish people happy holidays” C/Vargo also said: “Cool to think something as simple as 15 minutes of drawing can make those struggling smile.”
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KHHS Senior Tower
“Getting out of school early to give back to our community by helping the elderly was an enjoyable experience.” - C/Vargo
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On 11/24, our Kitty Hawk Honor Society cadets got to leave their lunch and 4th hour early to walk down to the Garden City Senior Center and help out with a program that gave out free Thanksgiving meals to the residents of the building. Many cadets thought it was a great way to give to the elderly with C/Vargo stating “Getting out of school early to give back to our community by helping the elderly was an enjoyable experience.” The cadets would grab brags at the ground floor and take an elevator to the rooms marked so they also got to explore the building. Overall the cadets and elderly people both enjoyed the event and are looking forward to next year.
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Movie Night
Parent Teacher Conferences
“It was a lot of fun meeting a lot of different cadets and their parents.” - c/Amn Goble
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On November 11th, MI-861 cadets were invited to help teachers and school faculty with our parent teacher conferences. Cadets were posted in various spots throughout the school to help direct parents to teacher’s classrooms, provide information about the school, and of course recruit for our program. In the commons we had our recruiting booth setup, where Cadets Goble and Baier talked to the parents of potential future cadets as they toured the school. C/Goble had a fun time talking to parents, saying “It was a lot of fun meeting a lot of different cadets and their parents.”
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American Legion Veteran's Day
"Watching Baier wash the windows was pretty funny" - C/Thompson
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This year for Veterans Day, our cadets were invited to the American Legion to serve food for their annual celebration. Cadets arrived at 9:45, where they helped to vacuum, dust, and wash windows until 10:45. After this, cadets were able to watch in–person as the Post 396 Commander gave a televised speech, along with a few other organizations. After this speech cadets began to help pass out food, getting to try some themselves after all the post members had eaten. Overall, every cadet there had a great time, with Cadet Thompson saying “Watching Baier wash the windows was pretty funny.”
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Lock In
"I liked the inflatables from the recruiters" - C/Billings
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On November 10th, AFJROTC held our annual lock-in! The lock-in is our annual event where the cadets get to hang out at the school from 6:00 PM until 1:00 AM in the morning. Cadets enjoyed sports, pizza, and board games for 7 hours! We started our night off by making appreciation cards for all the teachers, which gave cadets a chance to give back to the community. Then, we kicked off the events with mini icebreakers in the commons area, which really helped set the mood, and then we all headed down for the pool to cool off and swim. After that we would compete against each other in dodgeball and ate pizza at about 9:30pm. Cadets were also able to spar in an inflatable jousting and sumo wrestling arena, with C/Billings recalling that he, “liked the inflatables from the recruiters”. The next planned event was capture the flag which we played with glow sticks in the auditorium. After tiring ourselves out, we headed back to pie our seniors. All the seniors pulled tickets out of jars to decide who got to slam a pie in their face. MSgt Ragnone and C/Muntain both ended up getting pied too! Overall it was a very fun event and many cadets are looking forward to it next year.
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Anchor Bay Drill Meet
It was fun, competitive, and overall a great time. - C/Geimer
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Congratulations to the Garden City Drill Team for their victory this Saturday! Going up against six other schools, Greenfield, WI, Merrillville, IN, Howell, MI, Anchor Bay, MI, and an Army unit, Springfield, OH; GCHS swept the floor with a first place in First-Year Color Guard, first place in First-Year Armed, third place in advanced color guard, and third overall! In regulation drill, Garden City scored highest in the meet! Congratulations also to our seven medalists in the knockout tournament, C/Alex Giarmo, C/Andrew Baxendale, C/Matthew Canty, C/Lillian Geimer, C/Toby Thompson, C/Amaliya Akimova, and C/Gavin Bender, who each competed against every participating student from every school. C/Toby Thompson, C/Matthew Canty, C/Brooklyn Peterson, C/Zoey Mercer, C/Gavin Bender and C/Kaleb Ingram all commanded routines. Corps Commander C/Bender, leader of the Drill Team, mentioned that, “This is the time the Garden City Drill Team takes its well-deserved place. We’re here to win, and we’re here to represent Garden City High School and its cadets honorably & tenaciously”. March on, Garden City!
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AL Steak Fry
“Great way to help others while bonding with the team”-C/Harnos
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On November 3rd, cadets got to hang out at the American Legion down the road from the highschool to volunteer their time at the annual steak fry. Starting at 4 P.M., our cadets at the Legion got the rundown on how to serve the steak and how to portion all the sides. Then, once the steaks were served, everyone got to hang out with all the veterans and people waiting to get their food. Once people were done eating some cadets started to do dishes and bus tables. Cadet Staff Sergeant Harnos said “It was a great way to help others while bonding with other cadets.” Cadet 1st Lieutenant Bush said “Food looked great and smelled amazing.”
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Swim Timers
"It was surprisingly a lot of fun. I got to meet a lot of new cadets that aren't in my flight." - c/Bush
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Swim Timers was a new community service event for AFJROTC and the school, which turned out to be a very fun activity for cadets. These community service events took place at every swim meet during the season, between the months of September through the end of October, where cadets were able to come and actively support their school swim team. Cadets learned various swimming techniques and how to score them, and helped the team improve their speed. C/Bush recalled that, “"It was surprisingly a lot of fun. I got to meet a lot of new cadets that aren't in my flight”. Cadets were also there for the retirement of Coach Johnson, a beloved swim coach at GCHS. It was a true joy watching students bond with the school and helping the senior swimmers have such a marvelous final season.
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American Legion Pig Roast
“It was a fun event and fun to get to know some of the new cadets better!” - c/2nd Lt. Matthes
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Each year Garden City’s own American Legion Post runs their annual Pig Roast in October. This year, our cadets were invited to help them out with directing guests, setting tables, and serving food. In the early morning our cadets arrived for the first shift, which mostly involved tidying up, staging food, and helping the Legion staff with various odd tasks. As the day progressed Legionnaires started to show up for a taste of the pork, and our cadets manned the serving line providing the various foods and desserts offered throughout the day. As the first shift switched into the second, a new round of cadets were taught how to serve food and bus tables as the old ones had their well deserved shares of the pig. The second shift continued as usual, opening the dessert table with some of the amazing foods brought in and donated by Legion members running this event. Finally, as the number of new guests started to wind down, cadets were able to help with cleaning and packing up the tables and food equipment, with c/AB Martin saying “Silly Gravy” as she helped to pack some of the leftover food. Well into our third and final shift, cadets were invited up to sing karaoke and dance, where we did some of our unit’s classics like the Love Shack, and some new ones including the Macarena. Overall, cadets had an amazing time, and we hope to be invited back next year to help!
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Adopt A Highway
“I feel like I got to know the other cadets better” - C/ OJ 1
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Our annual Adopt Highway community service event was a quick but fun one this year. Taking place on October 20th, 2023, this event allowed new and old cadets to get to know each other. This year we cleaned quite a bit of trash from the side of Ford road, there may not have been as many cadets as goodbye litter but there was just enough cadets to allow us to pickup all the trash on the side of the road and make the streets look minerly clean and get done 10 minutes early, we posed for a picture and told everyone about the interesting stuff we found and threw away the trash.
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Apple Orchard
It was nice to finally meet with 30 other cadets new and old for a trip that we could all enjoy, because who doesn't like cider and donuts! -Scott
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Right after school on October 19th, cadets formed up right outside the AFJROTC room to find out what car they would be in to hit the road for the apple orchard. Once we got there, we were treated to a hayride. It was a bumpy ride but a fun trip. About halfway through the hayride, we picked some delicious apples. Then we got back on the hay ride to finish it off with some jodies. After the hayride there were many activities that the cadets could participate in and they split up to do what interested them. Most started by playing on the jumping pillow with a lot of laughter heard coming from everyone. Cadet Komperta and a group of cadets were adventurous enough to tackle the corn maze. Coming out Cadet Komperta expressed “I liked getting lost in the maze, it was very difficult but also really fun.” Many of the group split up and tackled the pedal tractor course while others conquered the 25 plus foot tall hay bale mountain. Thankfully everyone returned from these activities safely. The petting zoo and 3D adventure house were also big hits. Cadet Lopota was heard saying “I loved the animals, especially the baby calf but they were all adorable.” Of course what would a trip to an apple orchard be without ending the trip with delicious apples, apple cider and donuts.
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Oath Ceremony
“I was nervous at first with being on Color Guard but the whole Ceremony was well planned. The speeches were really good” - C/SSgt Canty
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The Oath Ceremony is an event to officially accept our brand new first years as members of our Garden City AFJROTC family. Family and friends came together to celebrate and witness this welcome to the unit. The turnout this year was amazing with over 30 first year cadets and 200+ returning cadets, family and friends there to support the new cadets' decision to join us. A lot of planning went into this event led by 4th year cadet C/1LT Langer and everyone on the committee did their part. Our colors (flag presentation) were presented by first year cadets Daniel, Akimova, Canty, Thompson. They did an amazing job for their first Color Guard Event and performed outstandingly in front of an audience for the first time. Cadet Canty responded after this saying “I was nervous at first with being on Color Guard but the whole Ceremony was well planned. The speeches were really good.” First year cadets, Baxendale, Goble, and Brown did the honors of defining our Air Force Core Values, Integrity First, Service Before Self, Excellence In All We Do with cadet Komperda lighting a candle as each core value was read off. After the ceremony, guests enjoyed a variety of light refreshments, including cupcakes, fruit punch, and some ice-cold water. After the event one of our returning cadets, C/2LT Mercer made a statement that many can also relate to saying “It was exciting to see the first years being formally welcomed into the program.” Congratulations First Years and Welcome to the GCHS JROTC Program!!
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Hines Park Bike Ride
“Great exercise with new cadets” - c/2nd Lt. Matthes
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Starting at 1000 hours on September 30th, our cadets left the high school parking lot to start our bike ride through Hines Park. We first rode down to the entry point on Middle Belt for Hines Drive, and then most of the group rode down to Outer Drive. The weather was really nice and nice clear skys. We then all turned around and went to a park right after Inkster Road to take a group photo. Then after taking a little break for water, we went back to the high school to conclude the event at around 1130 hours. C/Matthews said "It was great exercise with new cadets." And everyone that was there said they enjoyed doing it and would like to do it again. C/Scott said " it was finally nice to get out on a nice day and go for a bike ride with cadets."
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Field Day
“I loved all of the events that we had today it was very fun and ran smooth” - C/SAmn Lorick
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On September 20th, 2023, we held the unit’s annual field day, where cadets went to the football field and had fun doing different sports and events. This day was made for team building, and to meet all the new cadets in a fun environment outside of the classroom. This year the Field Day was definitely a success. It ran very smoothly and the cadets definitely had fun, as C/Lorick stated: “I loved all of the events that we had today.” Some big things that the cadets did included playing tug of war, kickball, soccer, and relay racing. There were some smaller team building activities too, like dizzy bat and tower building. The combined Alpha and Bravo flights ended as our victors this year, with Charlie in second, Echo in third, and Delta in fourth. For Cadet Niemczewski’s first event, she believes that it went great, and so does everybody who attended, including the recruiters who donated their time to help us referee.
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Goodbye Litter
"This is the best event this year!" C/Col Bender
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On September 11, cadets all huddled in the AFJROTC room right after school to gather trash bags, gloves, and high visibility vests for our first Goodbye Litter of the year. We had more cadets sign up for this event than ever before! Our cadets got into two different groups and headed outside the AFJROTC room. One group went right, and one group went left, where they cleaned up the sidewalk, by the gym, in the tennis courts, and around the bus loop. Cadet Colonel Bender even said “This is the best event this year!” During our journey, we took some photos and made some important connections with new fellow cadets.
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Ice Cream Social
“The Ice Cream social was a fun event that allowed all the new cadets to socialize and get to know each other.” - C/1Lt Langer
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This year we started the new school year off right with the annual Ice Cream Social! Taking place on September 12th, New cadets were able to come and enjoy Big ice cream sundaes, music, dancing, various sports and other fun activities. The unit’s signature dance, The Love Shack, was done and taught to our new cadets by Cadet Langer. Cadet Langer said “The Ice Cream social was a fun event that allowed all the new cadets to socialize and get to know each other.” Lots of the new cadets attended the event and met some new friends. Overall the event was a great introduction to the JROTC program and all its future events!
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