Boys & Girls Club Blog

The Boys & Girls Club of Oshkosh is pleased to announce the 2020 Youth of the Year winner – Brandon Moench. Each year a local Youth of the Year committee interviews a number of high school students at the Club. They are judged on their service to their Club, community, and family, academic success, strong moral character, life goals, and poise and public speaking ability. The teen who scores highest in these areas is chosen as the Youth of the Year winner for the organization.

In December 2019, Brandon competed against three other local Club members for the title and ultimately won. As the Oshkosh Club’s 2020 Youth of the Year, Brandon was awarded a $10,000 scholarship from the Boys & Girls Club’s Charles F. Hyde, Jr. Youth of the Year Scholarship Endowment.

From here, Youth of the Year winners from local Boys & Girls Clubs across the state will travel to Madison to compete for the state title in March. Brandon will compete against more than ten other Club members for the title of Wisconsin State Youth of the Year. If he wins the state title, Brandon would also receive a $5,000 scholarship from BGCA and Disney and a $1,500 scholarship from the Boys & Girls Clubs Wisconsin Area Council.

Brandon is a senior at Oshkosh North High School and plans to pursue higher education at Fox Valley Technical College and later transfer to UW Oshkosh to major in Political Science and minor in Philosophy.

“I have been a member of the Boys & Girls Club of Oshkosh for over twelve years,” Brandon explained. “The Boys & Girls Club has been helping mold my life since I was six years old.”

Brandon has also given back to his community through his involvement with the Club. For one of his Keystone projects, he took a leadership role in helping coordinate a national project on emotional wellness. This included breaking emotional wellness into multiple categories such as social health, emotional health, environmental health and more. Each month, Keystoners worked to build awareness of one of these areas of health among fellow Club members.

This past summer, Brandon worked at the Club serving meals to members as well as volunteered for various Club events such as the Teen Center Open House, making flower pots for community members in honor of Earth Day and many other projects.

In Brandon’s own words, “My Club experience is full of laughter, tears and great stories. I have hours of stories I could tell about this organization. I volunteered for the Club, I worked for the Club and I can never live a day without thinking about the Club. This place is my second home and my second family. I believe in helping and caring for others, the high values of our nation, our military, equality, love and my Boys & Girls Club.”

Liz Karlovich, Teen Center Director describes Brandon as “the perfect example of what it means to be Youth of the Year.” She went on to say that Brandon as, “a leader in and outside of the Boys & Girls Club, is motivated to make changes in his community, and does whatever he can to make his peers feel welcomed and cared for. The Club has seen him overcome many obstacles over the years to get to where he is today and we can’t wait to have him represent us in 2020.”

Please join the Boys & Girls Clubs of Oshkosh in congratulating Brandon in all of his accomplishments and Youth of the Year title.

Thank you to the 2020 Boys & Girls Club of Oshkosh Youth of the Year Judging Committee:

Mike Castle (Castle Pierce Printing), Karlene Grabner (Oshkosh Area Community Foundation), Chief Dean Smith (Oshkosh Police Department), Peg Wachtel (Committee Chair), Kim Wetzel (Amcor).