HOULTON, Maine — Two members of Region Two’s MELMAC Initiative, to help students aspire to a post-secondary options, traveled to Parris Island, S.C. to attend an educators’ workshop conducted and sponsored by the U.S. Marine Corp.
Law Enforcement Instructor Dave Socoby and Applied Academics Instructor Robert “Bo” Zabierek attended the one-week workshop which is intended to let educators see, feel, and hear the “Boot Camp” experience.
“I was honored and to stand in the same yellow footprints that my oldest and youngest brothers stood in years ago,” said Zabierek.
That tradition is the first contact that recruits have with their drill instructors and then they are issued their uniforms; and haircuts for the men.
“We were lucky to get to have lunch with recruits from our part of the country, visit the Marine Corp Museum, fire weapons on the simulated firing range, and then proceed to the actual firing range to shoot automatic weapons at targets,” added Socoby.
The week capped off with a visit to the obstacle course, dinner with the General and family members of the recruits, and a graduation ceremony of a group of recruits who left as Marines. Included in the graduation ceremony was a citizenship ceremony for 15 of the recruits, previous to them becoming Marines.
The instructors were informed of the workshop by their MELMAC coach, Cliff McHatten; who also accommodated a team of two educators from Lee Academy to attend.
