Loring Defenders learn lessons not taught in classrooms

    LIMESTONE — Sara Fulton, of Blaine, has been at Job Corps for a year and a month. She’s hoping to graduate by December, having already completed the CNA vocation and currently working with medical office support. Like most students, Fulton came to Job Corps hoping to receive an education and has resultantly experienced what it’s like to live with hundreds of people from a variety of backgrounds in relatively close quarters. That unto itself can be a life-changing experience.

    Aroostook Republican photo/Natalie Bazinet
    Still a new program at the Loring Job Corps Center, the Loring Defenders will be marching in the Sesquicentennial Parade on Sept. 5

    Unlike most students, however, Fulton deviated from the social norm of the center and joined the Loring Defenders — a group that reinforces the core values of the center while also introducing the students to principles and ideals taught to military personal including discipline, respect, and honor.
    The Loring Defenders refer to one another as honor guards and expect the name to be lived up to; joining the Loring Defenders is not something Job Corps students can join just by showing up or signing their name.
    Comparatively speaking, it’s a lengthy application process resulting in a peer interview before a student can become a recruit with the Loring Defenders.
    While most of the Defenders admit that they enjoy the experience, success with the program doesn’t come easy. Aside from the community service and academic commitment that the students are required to put fourth by the Center, Loring Defenders must complete additional hours of community service, attend physical training (PT) sessions and participate in weekly meetings and other activities. It takes up a good portion of the students’ time that they could be playing video games or idly passing time with classmates.     
    It’s not an easy experience, but it’s one that Fulton finds rewarding.
    “I’m doing this to learn self-discipline, gain self-confidence and boost self-esteem,” she said, adding that the idea of losing weight through PT was an appealing prospect. Being home-schooled, Fulton had found it difficult to enter a public school setting, but becoming a Loring Defender helped her embrace the situation. Fulton is currently a sergeant first class.
    While the program has been in existence for almost a year, Military Prep Instructor Roger Felix took the program over in December of 2008. Felix, now retired after 22 years of serving his country in the Army, has two Loring Job Corps staff members assisting with the program; James Canales assists with technical training having served in the Navy for four years and is currently in the National Guard and Shaun Guerrette assists with instructing advanced PT.
    Advanced PT meets on Monday and Wednesday morning at 5, and normal PT sessions are on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. The Defenders are expected to fulfill their Sunday PT requirement on their own.
    Fulton has seen first-hand the challenges and benefits of PT; the hardest part of the program for her has been the dead-arm hang. At first, she could only hang for 13 seconds. As of August 6, she could hang for 45 seconds.
    “I enjoy every minute of it,” she said, though she admitted that it wasn’t easy. “You have to work really hard to get where I am right now or to even get from a recruit to a private.”
    “Some of the Job Corps students choose to be Loring Defenders because they want to go into the military and Sergeant Major (Felix) helps them,” she added, clarifying that she didn’t join to prepare for a military experience. “I joined to be a part of the Loring Defenders and to have a good experience.”
    It has been a good experience for her; one that she stated will always be a fond memory for her to look back on after she graduates.
    Earning respect has been a very rewarding aspect of being a Loring Defender for Fulton.
    “Lead by example is one of Sergeant Major’s favorite sayings,” she explained. “You show people how to do something right and hopefully they’ll follow your lead. Sometimes it works if a person is willing to follow.”
    Loring Defenders tend to lead by example, and they have developed a strong sense of comaraderie because of it.
    Being taught to work as a team, some of the Defenders openly acknowledge how the individual can benefit through teamwork, something that Felix teaches on his 18-mile 3 a.m. rock march, where the Defenders are put into teams of two and each two-man team is responsible for carrying a sizeable rock all 18 miles.
    George Anzalone has been a Job Corps student for almost a month, and has joined the Loring Defenders to help prepare him to pursue a military career.
    “It’s a lot easier to train with a group,” he said. “We’re all doing it as one.”
    Currently studying masonry, Anzalone is looking to join the Marine Corps once he graduates.
    “I’ve wanted to be in the military since I was 13 years old,” he said, adding that he’s been training himself since then, but training and discipline he receives through the Loring Defenders surpass what he was able to do on his own.
    “Honor guard is a good thing to do,” Fulton said. “It’s really fun to help people out, especially when we went to Catholic Charities.”
    The group has worked with Catholic Charities a few times now, sorting food and even conducting a food drive, going door to door in Caribou and Presque Isle collecting about 750 pounds of canned goods and 400 pounds of boxed goods.
    Many of the Loring Defenders will be marching in the Sesquicentennial Parade in Caribou on Saturday, Sept. 5.