THUNDER BAY – The commander of HMCS Griffon says his goal for 2019 is to help grow the ship’s numbers once again.
Two years ago the Griffon was down to fewer than 50 members, but that total climbed to 59 a year ago and now sits at 66.
The goal is to get back above 100.
Lt.-Cmdr. Robert Cooke on Tuesday said it’s a tall task, but they’re expanding their recruiting efforts at local schools.
“We’re opening up our high-school co-op to both semesters, so we’ll be doing the fall semester and the winter semester, starting this year,” Cooke said, opening the Griffon’s doors to the public on New Year’s Day for the annual levee celebration, a tradition that dates back nearly 400 years.
“So we hope to get more exposure to the youth of Thunder Bay.”
Several dozen showed up for Tuesday’s levee, which traditionally was a time to provide an update on the events of the previous year and a chance to conduct planning for the coming year.
Begun in New France in the 17th century, levees have evolved somewhat over the years, but are still a chance to get together, reminisce and look ahead.
Cooke said it remains important to this day.
“The military has always taken that on in Canada. It’s done right across the country. The governor generals, the lieutenant governors also do levees. We use it here as a chance to get old friends together and also to give a little bit of a blurb with what’s going on in the unit and what’s going on with the future of the unit,” Cooke said.
Looking back to 2018, Cooke said it was a busy year for the reserve unit.
“We started off with a search-and-rescue exercise with 435 Squadron out of Winnipeg in May of last year,” he said.
“We had our normal routine that we do, lots of training and sending people off to the coasts aboard ships. The big event was really the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War. Griffon was quite active in that and that really led us into the whole Remembrance week in the early part of November.”
Taking a peek into 2019, Cooke noted the year will mark the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Second World War.
The levee included the traditional toast to the queen, and also featured a four-song performance from the MacGillivray Pipes and Drum Band, who were joined by Highland dancer Heather Prus.
