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14-year-old Flight Corporal De Baerdemaeker on Her Way to Cadet’s Provincial Finals Effective Speaking Competition

Talk about drive and determination—14-year-old Flight Corporal De Baerdemaeker, has only begun speaking English since 2019, yet tomorrow she will be speaking in the Cadet’s Provincial Finals Effective Speaking Competition in Tisdale!

We were lucky enough to catch up with her to ask her a few questions, which she has answered below:

Q1. Tell me about yourself
I’m An De Baerdemaeker. I am 14 years old and grew up in Belgium until August 2017. In August 2017,
we moved to Soria, Spain, until December 2019. In December 2019, I moved to Vancouver Island, and
finally, in April 2021, I made the final move to Kindersley, SK. I had never spoken English up until I
moved to Canada.

Q2. Why do I do cadets
I chose to do cadets because I’ve always loved everything to do with flying and the sky. As a child, my
parents were part of the snow cleaning at Brussels airport which made me get more in touch with
airports. Once I got older, I started to learn about the world wars and heard about how much Canada
did for that side of the world. So, when I heard about the air cadet program, it had to do with planes
and the Canadian Armed Forces, I realized it was a way of thanking Canada for what they had done
but also a way to be able to fly.

Q3. What are the Provincials of the Effective Speaking Competition?
Before we make it to provincials or any other competition, we get a list of topics to choose from and
your 5–6-minute speech will be based on that. We get several weeks to prepare, then a day gets
picked for an inner squad competition. In that competition, you compete against your peers, not just
with your prepared speech. That day the jury comes up with a topic that they want each cadet to talk
about for 3 minutes, each one gets 2-3 minutes to prepare their speech, and then they must go up and
present it. Out of this competition, only the first-person advances to Zones.
Zones are a big deal. This is the competition between air cadet squadrons that are considered in your
zone. You will use the same speech but get a different improvisation topic. From this competition, the
first three advance to the Provincials. Once again, you would use the same prepared speech, but there
would be a different improvisation speech. In provincials, only the first place will advance to the
Canada-wide Nationals.

Q4. My favourite part about cadets
I don’t have one specific favourite thing about cadets. I enjoy being there on Thursdays and love
learning new things as a cadet. Every week I get to know something new, and it’s incredible. I found
my passion that I want to continue with in life. So far, my favourite experience was cadet camp last
summer. I got to meet many new people and had a blast. Until today, I love anything to do with
cadets and hope to one day make my career out of this and become a pilot in the Canadian Armed
Forces.

Q5. Extra
Cadets has taught me many life skills, like how to survive when you’re in the bush and barely have
anything with you. It learned me how to accept that even when everyone is different and we can all
be the same in one way, and how to have respect others and proper manners. Honestly, I can’t say
anything terrible about cadets. I’m so happy I was able to join!

Flight Corporal De Baerdemaeker

–From all of us at Kindersley Social, best of luck Flight Corporal De Baerdemaeker!

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