The rugby season of the Royal Military College “Paladins” was extended by one game on November 9, 2005 as the “Chambrays” arrived in Kingston for a very special challenge match.  After an absence of three years from playing varsity rugby, the Paladins completed their first season in grand fashion by accepting a challenge from the only other Canadian Forces rugby team, the Canadian Forces College “Chambrays”.   

Mainly comprising officers attending the Command Staff Course at the Canadian Forces College in Toronto, the Chambrays came not only from the three military environments but also from many locations in the world such as Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.  The match was a highly anticipated affair since this match represented the first ever competition between these proud and historic institutions.   

Battered by heavy rain, violent winds, and under the captivated eyes of both Commandants, BGen Jocelyn Lacroix (RMC) and BGen Walter Semianiw (CFC), a clash of generations took place.  The teams were perfect opposites; on one side a young, quick and dynamic team of the Paladins and, on the other, the mature, wise and experienced team of Chambrays.  On that afternoon, the skills of the younger team were a little too much for the astuteness of the old boys.   

La saison de rugby des Paladins du Collège Militaire Royal fut allongé d’une partie le 9 novembre 2005 lorsque les Chambrays arrivèrent dans la ville de Kingston.  Après avoir complété leur première saison en quatre ans dans l’Association des Universités Ontarienne (AUO), les Paladins acceptèrent un défi de taille provenant de la seule autre équipe de rugby des Forces Canadiennes, les Chambrays du Collège des Forces Canadiennes.   

Composée d’officiers du cours de commandement d’état major du Collège des Forces Canadiennes à Toronto, l’équipe des Chambrays comporte des joueurs de tous les environnements militaires et de plusieurs parties du monde, particulièrement de l’Australie, de la Grande-Bretagne et des États-Unis.  Les Chambrays arrivèrent de Toronto pour une partie de fin d’après-midi hautement anticipée par ces deux institutions fières et historiques, la première de ce genre entre les deux organisations.   

Sous une pluie froide et furieuse, des vents violents et les regards captivés des deux Commandants, BGen Jocelyn Lacroix (CMR) et BGen Walter Seminaw (CFC), un choc de générations eu lieu.  D’un côté l’équipe jeune, rapide et dynamique des Paladins, de l’autre, l’équipe mature, sage et expérimentée des Chambrays.  Les deux escouades adoptèrent des stratégies complètement différentes mais, cette après-midi là, il semblait que les aptitudes de la plus jeune des équipes furent un peu trop efficaces pour l’astuce de l’équipe mûrie.   

Même si la température essaya de voler la vedette, le CMR démontra de superbes habiletés et l’emporta par un compte de 30-5.  La « troisième demie » fut l’un des faits saillants de la journée.  L’inaugurale « Coupe des Vétérans” fut présentée au capitaine des Paladins, des plaques protocolaires furent échangées, des discours furent prononcés et, sans aucun doute le plus important, des liens furent construits entre les deux générations.  Ce fut une superbe occasion pour les deux équipes d’établir une camaraderie typique des équipes de rugby et des unités militaires.  Les cadets du CMR apprirent l’aspect de la vie dans le “monde réel” pendant que les Chambrays se remémorèrent des souvenirs de jeunesse et partagèrent leur sagesse avec ces officiers futurs.  Ce choc de générations sera-t-il le commencement d’une nouvelle rivalité et d’une nouvelle tradition?  Le temps nous le dira mais si ce premier match est une indication de l’avenir alors préparons nous pour un rituel de haute qualité.

The unofficial website http://www.geocities.com/rmc_redmen/ of the Royal Military College of Canada Paladins Varsity Program is up and running for the 2005-06 Ontario University Athletics (OUA) season thanks to the efforts of 20751 Wayne Green (RMC ’97). 

The website provides a great deal of information on the Hockey Program at RMC.  Sections of the website include the history of hockey at RMC dating all the way back to 1886 chronicling one of the first hockey games played in Canada between Queen’s and RMC and bringing up right up to 2005 when Tyler Middlebrook became the first RMC hockey player to lead the OUA in scoring.

The site also contains a section dedicated to the West Point hockey game.  This game is billed as the longest, continuous international hockey rivalry in the world.  Here you will find all the scores going back to the first game in 1923, see a video clip on the history of the series and see the names of some famous players who have played in the game.

Of course the most important part of the website is the current 2005-06 season for the Paladins.  Here you will find the team roster and statistics and game-by-game post game reports for the 2005-06 season. 

Wayne has been involved with hockey at various levels for the last 25 years.  Growing up in Sherwood Park, Alberta, he got his first taste of what it takes to run a hockey team off the ice when his family got involved with the Sherwood Park Crusaders of the Alberta Junior Hockey League.  Wayne started out as a stick boy for the team of 16-20 year olds when his dad ran into the coach of the team who was an old junior high and high school friend from Flin Flon, Manitoba.  That coach was Al Hamilton who played in the WHA and NHL with the Edmonton Oilers and was the first Oiler to have his jersey retired. 

Over the years Wayne continued to serve the Crusaders in various rolls from stick boy, to 50/50 ticket seller to office ice official to finally, after all that, and “front office” staff when his family bought an interest in the team. 

When Wayne entered RMC in 1993, that was the first year in a while that he was not involved with hockey.  Finally while on fire picket duty he got the urge again.  Back then fire picket would provide off-ice officials (goal judges, penalty box staff) to the hockey team and during the last game of the season, he was on duty and there began the involvement with RMC Hockey. 

For the next three years at RMC, Wayne worked with the hockey program in all sorts of capacities.  Much like his previous experience he started out as the equipment manager and just took on more and more responsibilities.  Without the assistance of Paul LaHay who was the other student manager, none of this could have been done. 

With a dedicated group of other cadets and hockey fans Wayne tried to make it an event to come to a RMC hockey game.  50/50 ticket sales were started in the stands, Christian Lillington organized intermission contests and got local businesses to donate prizes, in addition he also was the DJ for the games.  With cadets Devon Matsella and Keri Kettle playing the bagpipes in the stands and all the cheering cadets, it made all the other teams have a love/hate relationship with Constantine Arena.  The teams hated coming in to the rink because of the noise and abuse they took but at the same time they loved the atmosphere. 

After graduation, Wayne was posted out to Edmonton with 1 Service Battalion.  For a couple of years he was away from hockey but the bug finally caught up with him in 2001.  After being frustrated with not being able to see how the RMC hockey team was doing in local papers or through the RMC website, he decided to establish his own website.  As an artsman with limited computer skills, and after some self-teaching Wayne developed the website.  The first season was a little tough as the site was launched in a skeleton format and Wayne lived through trial by error lessons.  To hinder the site development even more, he was deployed on Operation APOLLO to Kandahar, Afghanistan in the middle of the season. 

For the next season, Wayne had learned a little more about website development and made some improvements and to this day continually tries to improve the site through full and complete information, better design and updating it as quick as possible.  Last year he was able to get a live web cast for the West Point Game and he is hoping for something similar this year.  Wayne would like to thank all the RMC Hockey parents, ex-cadets and hockey fans who continue to support the website and the Varsity Hockey Program.  He also welcomes any ideas to make the site better to serve RMC Hockey Fans 

Wayne is currently posted to 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group Headquarters in Edmonton, Alberta.  He lives in Sherwood Park with his wife Theresa and daughter Hayley.  Wayne and Theresa are expecting their second daughter at the end of November.

In recent months in my capacity as Chairman of the Fund-Raising Committee of the RMC Club Foundation, I have undertaken a review of donations made by graduates and friends of the Royal Military College of Canada with the objective of discerning patterns in these gifts of money such that the Foundation might be better informed in its efforts to serve the RMC and its ex-cadet community. 

To begin, it is worth noting (or perhaps repeating for many) that the RMC Club proper is mandated to help cadets, ex-cadets, other graduates and friends of the RMC develop, enrich and maintain their interest in the RMC, their alma mater.  The Club executes this mission through its publications, its mounting of the annual Ex-Cadet Week-End and its direct support and participation in the functions organized at the Club branches across Canada and around the world.  

In complement, the RMC Club Foundation is mandated to identify projects of real and lasting value for the RMC and its continuing march of cadets and post-graduate students and to provide the facilities through and by which graduates and "friends" can show their pride in and support for the RMC through donations and other longer-term financial commitments. 

So the Club provides the ready impetus and regular opportunities for RMC graduates to meet and continue to participate in the life of the College while the Foundation develops and undertakes projects that allow those same graduates to contribute to the continuing betterment of the RMC.  Therefore with good reason, RMC Club membership dues/fees, essentially payments for service, trigger no tax benefit while donations to the RMC Club Foundation, a separate legal entity, are fully tax-deductible.  

With these points in mind, we might now ask how are we doing or, in another way, how vibrant is the RMC community and its support for the mother college?  This was the thrust of my recent study of the donations made by ex-cadets and friends of the College. 

In short, the financial support from the RMC community is comprehensive, on-going and substantial.   

Now some detail.  In the year 2004, over 1500 individual ex-cadets sat down and each wrote a cheque to the RMC Club Foundation.  These donations have come from every province, the United States and almost every country where ex-cadets have been posted or now reside.  Every branch of the Canadian Armed Forces, almost every federal government department and many of Canada's major business groups are represented in these ex-cadet donations.  Looking at these commitments through the lens of graduating classes, virtually every class is represented in the lists of current donors.  Regarding gender, while most of the donations came from the gents, the lady ex-cadets are actually contributing beyond their relatively smaller numbers.  I say "comprehensive" for all of the above. 

The term "on-going" I use to characterize the broad and continuing commitments of the ex-cadet donors.  Fully 53% of all the donors in the past five years made more than one donation and about half of those or 25% appear to have committed to an annual giving. 

Finally the aggregate financial commitment of the RMC community to the College over the last five years including 2004 approached $6,000,000.  While this figure is clearly substantial, it should also be noted that fully 1,435 ex-cadets, that is, over 10% of those still on strength, have each donated $500 and more to the Foundation.  Also as one might expect or hope, the top 10 donations made up over 30% of the total.  So the donations were substantial in aggregate, in participation and in the size of gifts given by quite a number of individual donors. 

No review of donations to the RMC Foundation would be complete without some mention of the tremendous generosity and participation of the graduating classes of 1961, 1965 and 1997.  While I hesitate to mention just three classes, knowing well the efforts and success of many other classes, I think it appropriate to acknowledge in this forum the leadership that is being shown by these classes.  A brief telling of their stories can surely be an inspiration to us all.  The Class of 1961 has donated over $1,300,000 with 32% of their class participating, while fully 70% of the members of the Class of 1997 have already made a donation to the Foundation for an early total over $32,000.  The Class of 1965, meanwhile, is now in the midst of an already successful pledge initiative with a very high percentage of their members in the swim.  By all accounts, all of these classes will be adding significantly to their totals in coming years. 

That said, the RMC Club Foundation is not without challenges.  There remain another 70% of ex-cadets who have yet to make a donation, one-third of whom are already members of the RMC Club.  In fairness it must be noted that making donations to one's college or university is a matter of understanding, available funds and then preference.  Many people in early career and even those in mid-career with immediate family obligations will most often find it difficult to focus on and seriously consider the needs of their old school.  Often there is no time or money to do so.  The Class of 1997 however has ably demonstrated to us that an early start to such gifts can be quite doable. 

Again speaking generally, once graduates have the life experiences to put some perspective on their critical college years and those places that they once called home, there seems to be a need for going back emotionally, a need to re-connect, and a need to contribute for those who follow after.  It is most often at this stage that ex-cadets wish to step up and pass their earned beneficence further down the "Long Scarlet Line" since 1876. 

In closing, I can say that I am personally most impressed with the findings of this review of donations to the Foundation.  All factors considered and in comparison to the alumni giving at other institutions, ex-cadets and friends of the College have been providing a credible financial support to the RMC.  That said, it remains the work of the Foundation to interest more ex-cadets in joining the campaign and in considering a commitment to annual giving at their comfort levels, while enticing more of our fortunate few to grab hold of our exciting, up-coming building projects. 

13766 Konrad R. W. Mech (assisted by 7243 John Adamson)