The Carlyle RCMP detachment welcomed a new Staff Sergeant last week. Darren Simons is excited to be starting in Carlyle and serving the area.
Simons says that his want to join the RCMP began as a youth telling The Observer, “It was a childhood dream.”
Simons’ father was a member of the military police and was stationed in Germany for a time. It was in Germany that Simons finished high school and joined the Canadian Armed Forces.
“I actually joined the Canadian army while in Germany, I was sworn in on the base there, and then flown to Canada,” he explained.
After two years serving the country as a soldier, Simons applied to and joined the RCMP.
“It’s been just over 25 years now and this is my ninth detachment,” Simons explained. “I’m kind of following in my father’s footsteps as he was in the military police; I have the military side covered and now the policing side as well.”
“They sent me to Montreal first for seven and a half months to learn French and then I was in Depot for six months in Regina.”
From there Simons was placed in Vermillion then Assumption, both in Alberta. He was then transferred further north spending time in Tuktoyaktuk and Fort Laird in the North West Territories.
“That’s where I met my wife, Tracy,” Simons smiled.
Simons was then stationed at Gleichen, “That’s when I married my wife,” he added. Together they moved to Boyle and then Lac La Biche – where they had their son, Nathan – before making the trek to Saskatchewan where he was most recently stationed at Hudson Bay.
“I’ve lived in seven provinces and territories throughout my life as well as in Germany.”
Although Simons has seen much of Canada and lived abroad, his priorities fit nicely into small town Saskatchewan.
“I like helping people and being involved in the community,” Simons stated. “I’m helping coach my son’s hockey this year. On Saturday, Oct. 24, we got to town at 2:30 p.m. and by 4:30 p.m. my son was on the ice and I was swinging doors.”
“My wife and I very much like being involved in the community and we love it here already. We researched the area before coming, my wife had family that lived in Manor, and we have friends that had worked down here. So, we knew people would be friendly and that they were pro-community people and pro-police, and that’s actually why we decided to come down here.”
