Robert Land Academy march stresses importance of teamwork

Staff and students from Robert Land Academy, with guests from Massanutten Military Academy of Virginia, Oak Ridge Military Academy of North Carolina, members of the New Mexico National Guard and cadets from Royal Military College of Canada, will be hitting the trails across Niagara this week to participate in the school’s annual fall exercise.

Robert Land Academy (RLA) is a military-themed private boarding school in Wellandport.

Students will be marching nearly 70 kilometres over three days, starting Tuesday.

“The annual fall exercise is one of the crown jewels of the RLA program and has been since its inception in 1978,” said headmaster and retired lieutenant-colonel Ryan Smid in a press release. “For many of the boys it serves as the first time where they accomplish something truly difficult that they didn’t think they were capable of doing.

“Once that realization is made, it quickly spreads to other areas of their life,” he said.

On the first day they march for 33 km along the Bruce Trail from Beamsville to Short Hills Provincial Park in Pelham.

The second day will begin on the Bruce Trail, leaving from Short Hills, marching through part of Thorold and then to Welland Canals Parkway Trail, finishing up at Merritt Island in Welland after 22 km.

On Thursday they march from Fort George in Niagara-on-the-Lake, along Niagara Parkway to Queenston Heights, where a ceremony takes place when marchers receive a Baker Badge.

Grade six student Dante Antoni is participating in the exercise for a second time.

“It feels like you just unlocked a whole new level of life,” he said in the academy release, reflecting on his experience. “You feel very proud of yourself, it’s a big accomplishment.”

“Even if your body is telling you that you can’t do it, with the right mindset and you keep telling yourself that you can, eventually you do it,” he said.

Grade 12 student Cameron Hewitt-Hunt said he felt that completing his first fall exercise was like overcoming a major level in a video game.

He said he learned resilience from the experience. “I didn’t quit then, I shouldn’t quit now.”