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Three cadets received top awards at our 2015 prize-giving evening. 

The award for the Junior cadet of the Year was made to Kristian Martin who had impressed the staff with his maturity, willingness to get involved in all sorts of things and his leadership skills.

The Best Cadet award for the most qualifications was a close decision as two cadet had achieved the same number of qualifications during the past year. This meant that the number of events attended by the two cadets was taken into account and so the award was given to Leading Cadet Hannah Calder.

The cadet of the Year Award is given to the cadet who has impressed the staff the most during the year with their development as an individual, their overall contribution to the unit. This year we were delighted to be able to give the award to Able Cadet Ranald Ross.

The PO Beeston Community Service shield went to LC Calder for her work with the Lochaber Rural Trust and her church.

In many ways, however, it needs to be said that all the cadets deserve an award of some ort or another as it's been a wonderful year and congratulations should be given to everyone for their efforts.

Two of Lochaber's cadets made up one of the Highland District swimming teams that brought home the 'Girls Y' (for 15 year olds) trophy from the Northern Area Swimming Gala. Hannah Calder and Deeann Strachan together with Melissa and Natalie Cardosi from Thurso competed against cadets from all across Scotland and Northern England. On top of this Deeann won a silver medal in her 100m freestyle race.

A couple of years ago the Lochaber rotary club gave us the railway staion wishing well in which to collect money for the unit. We chose to give some of the money to the Help for heroes and Mobility Lochaber. Recently a cheque was given to them at a gatehring of the cadets.

Picture courtesy of The Write Image.

The T.S. St. Christopher, Lochaber’s own Sea Cadet Unit was recently awarded an efficiency Pennant for its work during the past year. This makes one in each of the past seven years. the last time that happened was in the 1970's!

Every year the unit is assessed against a set of twenty targets. They include health and safety, the performance of its cadets and adult instructors, training programmes, its management committee, community support, ceremonial routines and much more. The unit was particularly praised for its support to the community, its high standards of health and safety, the performance of its committee and how it looks after the equipment and stores on loan to it from the Royal Navy. A few areas need to be improved for the future, top of which are the numbers of adult instructors.

Derrick Warner, Commanding Officer of the T.S. St Christopher said, “We’re delighted to receive this award which recognises the high levels of commitment that everyone shows in working for the unit. It’s a very fair report and we’re already on top of the few issues it raises. Thanks to the Lochaber News, we’ve been able to appoint two new and very capable instructors, but we still need one or two ladies to come and help us by working with our junior cadets and to boost the levels of female cover we have for the girls who come along each week.

Most importantly, the award recognises the supreme commitment and efforts that our young people have made over the past year. They should be really proud of what they’ve achieved.”

The picture shows some of the cadets with their 2014 Pennant on their way to Eigg for a adventure training expedition.

We were delighted to be able to support the Rev Dr Emsley Nimmo, Northern Area Chaplain of the SCC, on his sponsored pilgrimage in the footsteps of Moluag. The pilgrimage is to raise funds for the restoration of St Andrew's Cathedra, Aberdeen. Moluag an early Christian missionary, travelled through the area 1400 years ago.

With special permission from the Area Office and support from Scottish Canals, we took Rev Nimmo down Loch Lochy and a section of the Caledonian Canal between Laggan Locks and Banavie.