D(DLOY) Years 2012 - 2013

D (DLOY) Sqn RMLY

RMLY Journal Notes

Community Engagement & Social Events 2012-13

It is a great feeling when you know that your local and wider community supports the British Armed Forces and more importantly the unit you are serving with. This is abundantly clear here in Wigan where many of the events, which take place in the borough, do have some sort a military presence, i.e. TA, ACF, ATC, Sea Cadets or one of our neighbouring regular or TA units. You see, the Wigan borough is a very fertile area for recruitment, so being actively involved in community events can pay dividends for all those concerned. Of course, we in D Sqn sometimes tread on other units patches as they do on ours, and we did this in April 2012 when Lt’s Flewitt and Barnard headed up a cohort that descended on Aintree for the John Smiths Grand National three day racing event. The following month saw the Queen visit Lancashire and in particular Burnley and Accrington where the Sqn provided a ceremonial guard of honour at no less than six venues throughout Her Majesty’s visit.

D Sqn has historically conducted community engagement initiatives throughout the North West at many venues which include Aintree and Haydock Park races, DW Stadium rugby and football matches, fetes, carnivals, Mayor’s inception and remembrance parades to name a few. Conversely, it has held events at the Territorial Army centre where our ultimate aim apart from enjoying the odd social occasion has been to help us achieve greater integration with our civil communities. The St Georges Day celebration dinner is held annually and special guests such as the Mayor of Wigan and other Ward councillors are invited to dine with us. We have also held numerous open days and evenings to allow the general public and those youth organisations previously mentioned to come along and look at our equipment, meet our soldiers and get a general feeling of what we do.

The Sqn has also supported local civilian and military charities such as the ABF, RBL, H4H, Wigan & Leigh Hospice and finally yet importantly the Joining Jack Appeal, which is the most recent charity appeal the Sqn has been involved with. The Joining Jack appeal was set up by former Wigan Warriors rugby league player Andy Johnson for his son Jack who was diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). In October 2011 Andy received the shattering news that Jack has DMD. Failing a medical breakthrough, Jack's life will follow a predetermined path, mapped out by this progressive muscle wasting condition. In short, he will no longer be able to walk by the time he reaches adolescence and will lose the use of every single muscle in his body thereafter. He may need spinal rods to keep him upright and ventilation to help him breath. Eventually his heart and lungs will fail and he will die before he reaches the age of 30. Sgt Neil Dutton was the driving force behind the Sqn becoming involved with this appeal in 2012 and to his credit the Sqn helped raise substantial funds towards the DMD cause.

A number of these events provide us with the opportunity to engage with and to influence key stakeholders in order to obtain moral and physical support for our soldiers and their families in communities throughout the North West and further afield. Stakeholders include the public, business and local government leaders along with local and national media. By engaging with these people, we are able to shape the intellectual environment to enhance the military’s freedom to operate and create the conditions for successful and productive recruiting. It also helps society to have an understanding of the armed forces unique role and requirements, which will help us obtain the moral support we need so that we can influence them to provide the regular armed forces, reserves, cadet forces and their families along with employers with relevant and tangible support in their communities.

Photographs:

1. Aintree Grand National

2. Cav Mem Parade

3. LCpl’s Dean & Clayton FA Cup

4. St Georges Day Dinner

5. Haydock Park Races

6. Joining Jack Appeal

7. Joining Jack Appeal

8. Queens Visit to Lancs

9. St Georges Day Dinner

10. ACF Open Day

11. Cpl Hart Open Day

12. Cpl Clarke Open Day

13. ACF Open Day

14. Hon Col Boer War Remembrance Parade

15. FA Cup Maj Valentine, LPl’s Dean & Clayton, Tpr Brett

16. Hon Col Haydock Park Races

D(DLOY) Years 2013 - 2014