Features

One of the many challenges military members can face is surviving the ups and downs of moving their families so often. This week, we salute MCpl Annie Plourde and her family for adapting well to their latest posting.

NAME: Annie Plourde
RANK: MCpl
OCCUPATION: Resource Management Support Clerk
UNIT: 5 Wing Goose Bay
YEARS IN THE CF: 16
CURRENT POSTING: 5 Wing GOOSE BAY
PREVIOUS POSTINGS: Summerside, PEI; Toronto, ON; Petawawa, ON; Valcartier, QC.

WHAT WOULD YOU DESCRIBE AS YOUR MOST RECENT ACCOMPLISHMENT?
Definitely moving our children from a totally Francophone community in Quebec to an Anglophone province. Two of our three children did not speak a word of English when we arrived here in 2001. It was a challenge we took on together as a family. So from our son’s first English words at age 5 in the Tim Horton’s Drive-Thru, “Extra large Devil Devil please” to being fluent in a second language is an accomplishment for all of us to be proud of. Today at ages 13, 9 and 7, my children do not yet fully understand how fortunate they are to be bilingual, but they will come to appreciate it later in life. They are certainly living an English experience here in Goose Bay without getting away from their native tongue as French is being spoken at home and by attending the francophone École Boréale in Goose Bay.

WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT SERVING IN THE CF?
Having been raised in the small Northern Ontario town of Moonbeam and living at the same address for 20 years, the military life has given me the opportunity to live in different parts of our country, to constantly meet new challenges and to make new friends.

Bravo MCpl Plourde!