Douglassville >> For more than 30 years Pennsylvania State Police of Troop L, Reading, has been hosting Camp Cadet for the local youth.
Instilling core values is one of the camp’s main goals, another is to show kids the aspects of law enforcement officers that they wouldn’t ordinarily see.
The camp runs similar to a mini police academy and exposes the attendees, or “cadets,” to several types of law enforcement and various specialties through demonstrations and instruction.
The cadets march in platoon formations to their classes and activities. “Growth through Discipline, Achievement through Teamwork, Pride through Respect” is the camp’s motto.
“Anyone that comes and visits this place is totally amazed by it,” said Tpr David Beohm of PSP, Troop L Reading. Beohm is currently serving as the camp director and has been involved with Camp Cadet for six years. “A lot of people don’t even know about Camp Cadet and what Camp Cadet is.”
The week-long, overnight camp operates out of Camp Manatawny in Douglassville and is open to all youth ages 12-15 years old residing in Berks, Schuylkill, and Lebanon counties. This year it ran from Sunday, Aug. 14 to Saturday, Aug. 20.
This year the camp hosted about 75 youth, a majority coming from Berks and Schuylkill counties. Once a camper attends Camp Cadet, they can apply to serve as a junior counselor. Junior counselors help the senior counselors. Senior counselors are all serve as some type of law enforcement or military, according to Beohm.
“A senior counselor can be anything, some type of law enforcement or military,” said Beohm. He listed deputy coroner, cops, sheriff deputies, troopers, probation officers, parole agents that are serving as counselors. “The people that have gone through it, out of the 14 counselors that we have, six of them are Troop L Camp Cadet graduates. That just speaks for it right there.”
He referenced an individual from Oley, a Camp Cadet graduate currently in the Air Force. She took the week off to be a part of this year’s camp.
Throughout the week, cadets see demonstrations from the bomb squad, aviation, FBI, K-9 unit, secret service, and computer crimes. They participate in things like physical training, marksmanship, swimming, horseback riding, and various sports.
Berks Deputy Coroner and Camp Cadet President Kurt Katzenmoyer has been involved with camp cadet for 29 years. He attended as a 15 year old, and he has followed it through his law enforcement career.
“I want you take the goals and values we give you, take them out and do whatever you want to do in life,” said Katzenmoyer. He explained how they don’t expect all of the campers to find their way into the field of law enforcement. “You want to be the best engineer? Be the best engineer. You want to be the best auto mechanic, be the best tradesman, laborer – it’s doesn’t matter what you do. Take all these values we teach you because they’re all necessary to make you a better person in life. That’s the whole goal of Camp Cadet.”
He said how they use to law enforcement base because that’s what they know, and that is what has worked best.
“We have this camp the second or third week of August each year. The reason we do that is because these kids can go back to school and portray a positive image of police and what we do.”
The positive experience and relationships built between the officers and the young cadets is the key, and it’s the reason Troop L continues to hold the camp each year.
“We want to show them that we’re humans throughout the week. We laugh, we cry, we jump around and have fun. We’re not statues. We’re statues when we have to be, otherwise we’re human beings.”
The camp is very structured, and team work is a big part of that.
“Kids need to learn to think together as one mind and find each other’s strengths and weaknesses,” said Katzenmoyer. “You apply things to real life.”
The camp ends with a formal graduation ceremony, similar to true military graduation form.
“The kids have not seen us in uniform yet. We make a point of that. They finally see us in uniform and see what we look like, professionally.”
Katzenmoyer described the ceremony as “beautiful,” and how each cadet will receive a certificate. In the center of his certificates, he says the one from Camp Cadet is in the center of all of them since that’s where he got his start.
“What keeps me coming back is certainly the success of the camp,” he said. “The greatest feeling is when these kids come back years later and they tell you how much camp benefited them.”
