CAN I through the St Helens Star thank the manager and staff at Morrisons, Boundary Road store for allowing our cadets to undertake a bag pack to raise much needed funds, and their very generous customers for donating over £800.

Our parent service, the Royal Air Force, provides much of what we need to be a successful youth service, including our squadron HQ, the cadets uniforms, flying, gliding, and shooting, and residential visits to RAF stations.

What they cannot provide in these times of fiscal belt tightening is monies to cover participation in other disciplines such as the Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme, adventure training, and initiative and leadership expeditions. All these initiatives have to be self funded which, frankly, can be very expensive and might be beyond the scope of some parents, meaning that their sons or daughters would have to miss out on a very important part of their development, not only as a cadet but as a future worthy member of the community.

To ensure this does not happen the civilian committee is tasked with raising all the necessary funds to allow all cadets, irrespective of their parents ability to pay for it, to take part in all disciplines within the cadet training programme.

When a young boy or girl decides that they would like to join the RAFAC at the age of 12 they are, quite rightly, considered to be children. When they 'retire' at the age of 18 they are usually well balanced young adults who can be relied upon to be useful members of the community and society in general.

Without the very generous people of St Helens it would be virtually impossible for all cadets to reach their full potential so on behalf of the Officer I/C, his staff, cadets and the Civilian Committee, please accept our grateful thanks.

Wing Commander J Pepper RAFVR(T) rtd Hon President 969 (ST.HELENS) Sqn RAFAC