Butte County's Civil Air Patrol Squadron 95 recently held it's annual awards banquet.
As reporter Rick Carhart shows us in tonight's Kids In Action, it was a night of celebration for dozens of teenagers who are quite literally reaching for the stars.
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The applause was contagious on this evening, as the awards kept coming and coming.
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Civil Air Patrol Squadron 95 has grown by leaps and bounds this past year. There are now nearly 40 cadets involved, and many of them are already looking ahead.
Cadet Captain Nathan Beck says, "Civil Air Patrol has instilled in me an amount of self-discipline and...a new outlook for what I want to do with my future."
Sarah Gamble is a fourth-generation pilot, so it's no surprise that she wants to be an Air Force fighter pilot. But along the way, this teenager has picked up many other skills.
The Cadet 2nd Lieutenant says, "there's a lot of studying between aerospace and leadership and drill, so to get through all that you have to become a leader and it's the change from followership to leadership."
Just as in the military, one of the goals for cadets is to become an officer. In order to do that, they must earn the "Billy Mitchell Award", the culmination of at least two years of hard work.
Cadet Lieutenant Steven Finn says, "there were a lot of tests along the way for promotion, really pretty hard tests."
But none of these kids can ever be accused of shying away from hard work.
Squadron Commander Lt. Col. Dennis Parham says, "the paycheck for doing this volunteer work is to see these kids grow, and develop into fine young human beings."
There were a number of highlights for Squadron 95 this year, from community service projects like "Wreaths Across America" to success at the national drill team competition at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.
Sarah says, "I met people from Minnesota, Texas, Puerto Rico, you meet all these people you never would have and become really good friends."
As for individual accomplishments, newly promoted squadron Cadet Commander Nathan Beck is on his way to earning the "General Carl A. Spaatz" Award, the CAP Cadet program's highest award, only earned by a handful of Civil Air Patrol members across the country each year.
Col. Parham says, "to have a cadet of the caliber that can make it all the way through and be awarded the Spaatz Award, and reach the pinnacle of the cadet program is beyond belief almost."
And those who attended the banquet came away feeling good about our next generation.
Sarah says, "I love being a leader and this is the one chance I get to do it outside school."
In Chico, I'm Rick Carhart for Action News.
