- PSA’s Matt Barnette and SIA’s Don Erickson are running a marathon to raise money for FAST
- FAST is focused on helping students find out about the security industry and those in it to move up
- Barnette and Erickson are running the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon in San Diego May 31
Forget about the Avengers, the Superfriends or the Masters of the Universe. In the security industry, the biggest superheroes are PSA Security president and chief executive officer Matt Barnette and Security Industry Association Don Erickson, who are teaming up May 31 to raise money to boost the entire sector.
Barnette and Erickson will run the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon in San Diego in an effort to raise funds for the Foundation for Advancing Security Talent (FAST), an effort led by SIA, PSA and the Electronic Security Association (ESA) to enhance workforce development and talent outreach in the security industry.
Erickson, who ran 14 half- and full marathons last year to raise money for FAST, says Barnette, who has about 20 marathons under his belt but last ran one in 2020, was the only person he asked to team up with him on this year’s fundraising effort.
“Having (Barnette) get behind something like this on behalf of FAST, he was an obvious person,” says Erickson, who’s run 11 marathons in his life. “He was the obvious person to do it because of the PSA community as well as his relationship with the technology providers.”
“And I was okay with following him at the finish line. I have no shame in that,” he says with a laugh.
Erickson jokes that he “publicly shamed” Barnette into joining him for this year’s marathon in front of some of his PSA staff members during an industry awards night. Barnette admits he thought his days of running marathons were over but he’s happy to do it for such a worth cause.
“I’m going to have a little stroller that I’m going to tie tethered to Don and he’s going to pull me around,” says Barnette with a laugh. “I imagine the last 13 miles are going to be a struggle. The good news is San Diego is fairly flat once you get through the first couple sections.
“So it’s going to be a challenge but a worthy challenge, as Don said. It’s worth the effort to try to raise awareness and hopefully funding for FAST, so I’m excited,” he says, noting he’ll be contributing money for every mile out of his own pocket too.
Why Are Barnette and Erickson Running for FAST?
Having five members representing PSA on the FAST board of directors has expanded the foundation’s outreach and broadened its idea base, says Erickson.
“I feel like we’re finally coordinated with a real clear purpose about what we’re trying to do,” he says. “What we’re trying to do most specifically falls in probably two or three areas. We want to provide really good data to the industry about compensation.
“Second, we’ve got to do a better job of telling the story of why individuals should come into the industry, you know, through campus outreach and other means, trade schools, community colleges, or move up in the industry,” says Erickson. “So, career pathways, defining knowledge, skills and abilities you need to move forward is a project we’re working on.”
The FAST board also need to identify what the emerging skills are going forward three to five years, he says.
“But it has to happen faster,” says Erickson. “It’s a startup foundation but now we’ve got to move. We’ve got to be more mature with the foundation and actually show some tangible results and I think we’ll see that through college outreach, like the number of people that are participating.”
Barnette is proud to have PSA join the FAST board and the marathon is one way to spread the word.
“The gravitational pull on this industry is getting larger and larger,” he says. “I think it’s an excellent career for anybody, young adults especially. I keep hearing about the unemployment rate for college graduates right now is incredibly high. We just have to get the publicity out there about what this industry has to offer.
“Anything we can do to promote awareness about FAST and the industry and get in front of people and really educate on what the opportunities are here, it will be to the benefit of the entire industry, not just to PSA or SIA specifically, but to the industry in general, because it is the number one problem that everybody talks about,” says Barnette.
Rooting Them on to the Finish Line
SIA chief executive officer Don Erickson ran 14 half- and full marathons last year to benefit FAST. (Photo courtesy of Security Industry Association)
Erickson targeted the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon in San Diego as part of SIA’s continued outreach to the West Coast, which also includes plans for the AcceleRISE event in San Diego in August. Barnette and Erickson are still deciding whether they’ll wear matching shirts or separate ones representing their member companies.
“Hopefully, we can get some of our member companies to turn out and at least watch part of this,” says Erickson. “We have a number of companies that are within driving distance of San Diego, so hopefully we’ll have some spectators. That was part of the motivation as well: just have more of a presence out there in a fun way.”
PSA has “quite a few members in California, San Diego and L.A. County specifically,” says Barnette, who spent five years in San Diego during and after college.
“I’m always surprised,” he says. “The least likely people will just show up at these things and not even really give you a heads-up. It definitely gives you the encouragement when you see a friendly face along the way. And I stop and chit-chat and maybe have a Starbucks with them, because I’m not going to be in the winner’s bracket here.”
Barnette, who has run the half-marathon in San Diego but never the full 26.2 miles, says his wife and kids will be rooting him on to the finish line for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon. He expects to see them at the start of the race and at the finish line and possibly once in the middle.
Erickson will be joined on the course by his son Liam, who will be a senior at Virginia Tech in the fall after interning this summer at KASTLE Systems, and SIA senior director of industry relations Ron Hawkins.
They’ll be running the half-marathon in San Diego, says Erickson. Both he and Barnette expect they’ll see other familiar faces along the 26.2-mile route with representatives from SIA and PSA member companies cheering them on from the sidelines.
“It’s easy to underestimate how having just random people on the side of the road cheering makes such a big difference,” says Barnette.
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