From Service to Sportsmanship: Orange County Junior ROTC Volunteers at the Races

The JROTC of Orange County High School has been invaluable help to the Montpelier Races for many years. After any big event, there is a lot of trash generated and while our crowd is very considerate of our beautiful historic grounds, thank you!, there is still the need for trash removal. And the JROTC takes on this task.

Every Sunday morning at 8AM several buses with the entire Cadet Corps from OCHC JROTC is on site, organized into groups, partitions the entire race site into manageable parts and begins picking up the bagged trash and litter from the 18,000 or so spectators. Accomplished like a military mission, with clear leadership from the cadets and a unfailing enthusiasm to do the job in record time, the clean up goes remarkably quickly. On Race Day the JROTC provides a color guard for the display during the National Anthem preceding the day’s racing.

But what is the JROTC? As congressionally mandated each military service must have a Junior Reserved Officer Training program to “instill in students in United States secondary educational institutions the values of citizenship, service to the United States, and personal responsibility and a sense of accomplishment.” JROTC’s mission, “To Motivate Young People to be Better Citizens”, is the guide post for the program’s success. From our experience the program at Orange County High School is accomplishing the mission with tremendous success. The Montpelier Hunt Races is in turn a supporter of the Military Ball hosted by the JROTC each spring. The ball follows military protocol with all cadet guests in uniform, a receiving line and a presentation for the fallen. As part of the Orange community, we are happy to support programs and opportunities like the JROTC which are such valuable opportunities for our secondary students.