Caitlin Roberts with CEO Natalie MacDonald
To her peers CFA Junior Member Caitlin Roberts is described as kind and hardworking, a
volunteer who displays CFA values by always looking out for others and trying her best during her time as a CFA Junior.
Caitlin, who is the winner of the 2020 Spirit of CFA Youth Award, said it was unexpected.
“I am just doing what I can for CFA and the community. I don’t feel like I am going above and
beyond,” she said.
Caitlin joined Wandong Fire Brigade Juniors in 2016 when she was 11 years old and since then has achieved so much as a Junior and now Senior member. In 2018 she was first elected Junior Captain in 2018, and then when re-elected she stepped down to support an older member in the role who hadn’t been captain before.
“After being a captain, I learned to see things from someone else’s perspective,” Caitlin said.
“I had done my time and this was his last shot at being captain before becoming a Senior
member. I wanted him to have the same opportunity that I did in his final year as a Junior.”
Caitlin embraces challenges and leadership with grace, taking on roles as crew leader during
training drills at her brigade and she competed with distinction as part of CFA Team Yankee at the Australian Fire Cadet Championships, while all the time looking out for those around her.
Caitlin’s involvement with CFA has now gone well beyond being a Junior.
“I’ve now completed my General Firefighter training and I’m turning out as a Senior member
with CFA,” she said.
“My dad has been in CFA since being a Junior and CFA has always been in my life. I went to
the station with him and I was always interested in it.
“My involvement with CFA is partly a family tradition and partly to give back to the community, to do something to help those who need it.
“If the opportunity to be a lieutenant or captain comes up in the future I would take it, but I really want to do first-aid and low structure training first.”