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 Youth of the Year 2010 Youth of the Year: Brittany HernandezEach year, the Boys & Girls Club of Fond du Lac chooses one outstanding member to represent their Club as their Youth of the Year. This year, Brittany Hernandez, a 18-year-old senior at Fond du Lac High School, was awarded this annual honor. Her exemplary service to the Club, school, and community are talents that helped her achieve this honor. On March 2nd, Brittany represented the Fond du Lac Boys & Girls Club at the statewide competition in Madison. She competed against Youth of the year candidates from 15 other Wisconsin Clubs, performing a speech to other candidates and their mentors on what the Club has means to her, as well as how the Club has prepared her for the many challenges and successes she will experience over the years that will follow. Brittany was selected as one of the 5 finalists for the competition, which is a tremendous honor with such remarkable company throughout the state. We are every proud of all of her accomplishments, and we have no doubt this is just the beginning of the many successes she will have in life. Below is the touching speech that Brittany delivered at the competition: “I am still here.” Those four words summarize an attitude that I have learned to embrace. I am still here, and I am an individual who is passionate about change and about individuality. This is something I truly learned as part of the Boys & Girls Club of Fond du Lac. I faced a lot of challenges growing up. I always felt different from other children who had two parents. I often felt like an outcast, but now I realize that I had an amazing experience and a great upbringing. My grandmother picked me up from my apartment in Illinois when I was two months old. She arrived at the apartment to find a stranger taking all my baby clothes ... toys ... food. My parents were nowhere to be found. They had traded all these possessions for alcohol and drugs. Eventually, they went to prison. I had to be responsible at a young age. Since the fourth grade I had to walk, talk and act like an adult. I didn’t have as much fun as other kids my age ... “normal” kids. From this point I knew I wouldn’t be my parents, I wouldn’t be my friends. I did know that I would grow up and be myself, and I had to learn what I was to believe in. First, I needed to learn how to be open and true to myself. Growing up I often hid who I was. I was often sick, because I was a drug baby. My parents were addicted to cocaine and vicodin, and they passed that on to me. Many of the kids I went to school with never fully understood what I was going through. I was also a minority child in a city that was mostly Caucasian. I had to deal with some prejudice. I was in a single parent home, living with my grandmother. I had every excuse to follow the path the rest of my family chose, but I decided to choose the path less taken, and it made all the difference. I am still here. In the fourth grade, I started attending the Afterschool Club house at the Boys & Girls Club. The Club finally made me feel like a normal kid. The Club helped me, and all of its members learn about diversity and different cultures. To this day, the people that attended with me are the most open-minded people I know, which our world truly needs more of. I learned to be proud of who I am, no matter what my past was like. If I shared who I really was, and stopped trying to be someone else, I could truly succeed. I learned how to grow from my experiences and become a stronger person. I owe many thanks to the Boys & Girls Club for helping me to succeed. They provided a safe place for me to go every day. Without that who knows where I would be today. I see myself, and I think it’s remarkable to come through so much and still be a successful young woman. I look forward to attending college, and someday in the future being Dr. Brittany Hernandez. That’s what the Boys & Girls Club is all about ... youth like myself. People who come from different backgrounds but have common goals of succeeding and setting higher goals for our lives. The Boys & Girls Club turned us into leaders of our generation. People who are proud to stand up and say, “I am still here.” Past Youth of the Year Winners:2008/09 - Jeremy Lefeber |
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  Fond du Lac Area United Way, Inc. |
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