Troup County High School’s Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps stayed busy this week with a presentation to the LaGrange City Council on Tuesday and their part in the parade on Thursday, but judging by the long list of activities that the group takes part in on a regular basis, that seems to be a common occurrence.

The TCHS JROTC took a few minutes to discuss some of the work the group has been doing in the community during Tuesday night’s council meeting. The group presented a long list of community service, but also stated that it aims to help students who join the program improve themselves over the course of their service.

“Our goal is to bring in cadets who maybe don’t do so much in the school,” Cadet Col. Parker Stover said. “Our goal is to build better citizens through our program.”

The students in the program have taken part in a variety of service projects like planting grass plugs along The Ray near exit 14, assisting with parking at The Hummingbird Festival and family fun days for businesses. The students in the program also have the opportunity to take part in physical training, a specialized academic team, drill team, drone flight, an academic tutoring program and activities — like the TCHS JROTC visit to the National Infantry Museum — in addition to other school teams or clubs.

“For the cadets, we aren’t just trying to sign them up to help us out, we are trying to create a relationship with them and build them up as citizens and leaders,” Cadet Col. Eduard Hutado said. “We are also able to go and at LaGrange High, they don’t have JROTC, so if a student was to go to Gardner Newman and they really wanted to do JROTC, like they had military aspirations in their future, they are actually able to do a reserve program through Troup High and actually be in JROTC at Troup High.”

The information was provided as part of the group’s awareness presentation team’s outreach, and both cadet colonels expressed a desire to see the program continue to grow in the future.