ROCKWOOD – A local young man is going to get the chance to give back to an organization dear to him as the newest member of their executive board.
Josh Brander, 18, from Rockwood was announced as the 2022 youth director for the 4-H Ontario council board of directors.
“The director-youth is responsible for bringing the views and issues of the 4-H youth to the Ontario 4-H council discussions and assisting with the development of the 4-H Ontario program,” a press release said, explaining the role.
Brander said in an interview he’s been officially involved with 4-H since 2013 when he was nine years old and it was natural for him to join as its something his parents did when they were younger. Brander’s family owns a dairy farm and he said he’s never had his sights set on any other field of work besides agriculture.
“(4-H) is one of the only things you do off the farm and it’s really kind of a special thing for rural kids to get involved with in their communities,” Brander said. “I’ve been really involved all my life.”
Brander explained at 4-H clubs youth go to learn about different kinds of agriculture and various life skills to boost youth development.
He said he thinks the club is important for rural youth to branch out and discover new things. For him, that was public speaking.
“I used to be one of the shyest kids out there and 4-H, honestly, kind of gets very challenging at some points which is also good to bring you out of your comfort zone and they let you work on things and improve as a person,” Brander said.
He also said he found it beneficial to meet other neighbouring rural youth when he was younger as they’re more spread out than those who live in a city.
“It’s really kind of neat that it brings these people who are geographically not really that close together and brings us neighbours together, it’s good,” Brander said.
Brander had experience as a director with the local Wellington 4-H board and said he enjoyed the experience of seeing what the higher-ups were doing and how it affected members. Now, he gets to take that a step further with the provincial board.
“My job is to bring the members' views and opinions to the table there and I kind of like that aspect of it that I can just be that liaison between the members and the people making the decisions,” Brander said, later adding he can bring a better youth perspective because he was more recently a 4-H Club member than others on the board.
