Barnsley College’s Behaviour Support Manager Erica’s royal accolade

@BarnsleyCollege Behaviour Support Manager, Erica McCabe has been presented with the Her Majesty’s Lord Lieutenants’ Award in an online ceremony, in recognition by the Ministry of Defence for her voluntary and charitable work.

Erica joined the Cadets as a Cadet Force Adult Volunteer in March 2012 and is now Staff Officer (Training) and holds the rank of Captain. Her role is to manage and plan out training on a strategic level at the Sheffield HQ, which covers all Sheffield, Rotherham and Barnsley’s 350 cadets and 35 adult volunteers. Throughout her time within this role Erica has devoted herself to the development of the Cadets.

Alongside her role she has undertaken a range of charitable activities within the wider community, including climbing Mount Kilimanjaro with the Forces Wives Challenge, completing the National 3 Peaks Challenge, Yorkshire 3 Peaks Challenge, 100 Miles in 10 days, and the Vitality 10k in London: raising money for numerous charities.

In recognition of everything that Erica has accomplished within the Cadets in the last eight years to develop the Cadets and her community, she has been presented with the Her Majesty’s Lord Lieutenants’ Award. Her Majesty’s Lord Lieutenants are the representatives of the Crown for each county in the United Kingdom. The annual Lord Lieutenants’ Awards for reserve personnel, Cadet Force Adult Volunteers (CFAVs), cadets and employees of the reserve forces and cadet organisations of the armed forces are recognised as laudatory honours throughout the Ministry of Defence for exceptional service.

Erica said: “It feels amazing to be recognised at this level for something that is just a part of your life and doing things that are just second nature. The award is recognition of what I do and the effort I naturally put into changing people’s lives and changing our communities.

“I got involved with Cadets as I was a Cadet myself from the age of thirteen to eighteen. It gave me so many new experiences and opportunities that I would never have got anywhere else, without that I would not be where I am today. I returned as a CFAV to give that back and enable young people in my own community the opportunity to have access to the experiences I did. I feel that bringing this into the College can inspire our students to get out there to create amazing pathways for themselves no matter what their backgrounds are.”

Colonel David Fuller OBE, Vice-Chairman (Youth & cadets) RFCA for Yorkshire and the Humber, added:

“Captain McCabe is a well-respected and much-loved adult volunteer who has played a huge role in helping both cadets and other volunteers in her company and beyond enjoy the very best Cadet Experience.

“She enjoys a fantastic rapport with all the cadets she works with and is the sort of trusted person cadets and fellow volunteers can turn to for advice and support. Her boundless enthusiasm is shown in all she does – including a charity climb up Mount Kilimanjaro in Kenya which she did last year and this year, a virtual climb up Pen y fan – the peak beloved of SAS trainers – by climbing her staircase many hundreds of times”