GMC Corp of Cadets and KMBB partner for Earth Week

The Georgia Military College (GMC) Corps of Cadets partnered with Keep Milledgeville Baldwin Beautiful (KMBB) April 20 to participate in Earth Week events and clean-up around Baldwin County.

“We are teaching cadets that may have never done service before the impact for themselves and their surrounding community,” said Maj. Benjamin Carrick, one of the Corp of Cadets’s mentors. “The best leaders lead by example.”

Lt. Col. Colette Milak of the Junior College Corps of Cadets oversaw the planning and execution of the partnership as the cadet’s primary service project this year. All 235 members of the Corps of Cadets, alongside GMC Prep School cadets and community volunteers, picked up trash at nine different locations, including areas such as Memory Hill Cemetery, Huley Park and Bone Cemetery, Walter B. Williams Park, Caraker Ave. and Swint Ave., Oconee Greenway, and downtown Milledgeville.

“Planning began in November, and we held a meeting every other Monday to discuss who to get involved with, what we would need for the project, and more,” said Milak.

Carrick noted, “It is a cadet-led and implemented project. We started the project last year in Putnam County but decided to conduct this year’s project closer to home.”

The annual service project is designed to teach cadets the values of service, leadership, teamwork, and citizenship. In addition, it offers cadets experience in planning, developing, and executing a project alongside reaching out and making connections with different organizations in the area of impact.

“In the perspective of a cadet, it’s important to start service early in our careers … and gain the experience and insight to be able to make connections and plan events,” said Milak. “The biggest thing I learned during this process is that planning is important and breaking things down for each of the individuals involved is very imperative to implementing a plan.”

This year, cadets organized the event through the Baldwin County Chamber of Commerce and partnered with Keep Milledgeville Baldwin Beautiful, which is a local non-profit affiliate of Keep America Beautiful and Keep Georgia Beautiful.

“We knew what we were going to do and through our connections it was easy to determine the locations this year,” said Malik. “When we went to the locations, there wasn’t much trash and I believe we could have done more with the numbers we had. We could have improved the experience by hosting more meetings and having a more concrete plan.”

Carrick added, “Probably the biggest element in planning, especially when you are a part of the military, is creating a common operating picture, which is one thing she (Malik) struggled with … trying to get all the parties involved, the desire for the service, and achieving the goal.”

Carrick concluded that it was overall “a good project” and had a “lasting impact” on the nine locations that the cadets cleaned. Overall, they collected 40 to 50 bags of trash.

“Getting the opportunity to see the difficulty in bringing in multiple agencies to see and understand one plan and one goal is a great opportunity for us (GMC students and regimental staff) as it will be something they are required to do once they graduate. It’s a great training exercise for them,” said Carrick.

According to Carrick, GMC is hoping to host two large service projects for the Corps of Cadets to be involved in next year. Through that, Milak stated, the cadets will gain experience in planning multiple, different service projects and expand the area of impact.