FARM24 - Oudshoorn reflects back on the year as provincial Junior Farmers president

BY SHAWN LOUGHLIN

This weekend, in Peterborough, the Junior Farmers of Ontario will be holding their annual March Conference. There, Auburn-area native Jolande Oudshoorn will be making way for a new provincial president after a successful year at the top.

 

Around this time last year, Oudshoorn was elected the 80th president in the provincial organization’s storied history. The honour came exactly 20 years after the last Huron County resident, Mary Feldskov, was elected to the top position in Ontario Junior Farmers.

 

As The Citizen connected with Oudshoorn, who now lives in the Niagara Region’s wine country with her boyfriend with hopes of creating a small farm of their own, Oudshoorn was putting the finishing touches on planning for the March Conference, which is a touchstone for the organization and arguably its biggest event of the year. She was also just tying up loose ends, wrapping up any projects that were still on the go and tidying things up to ensure a smooth transition when a new president takes over this weekend.

 

While it will be bittersweet for Oudshoorn to say goodbye to the role that she’s called her own for the past 12 months, it has afforded her many opportunities, some of which have still yet to fully present themselves.

 

Going back to when she was first elected president, Oudshoorn was nominated for the province’s top job anonymously. She decided to let her name stand after spending the past year as a member of the provincial executive. She wasn’t alone, however, as a member of the Oxford County Junior Farmers also let her name stand, triggering a proper election, which Oudshoorn would, of course, go on to win.

 

The process involved a question-and-answer period, followed by the announcement that Oudshoorn had won.

 

According to the Junior Farmers Association of Ontario website, Oudshoorn is just the third Huron County resident to serve as the provincial president, after Mary Feldskov in 2003 and Jim Phelan in 1979. There have been two presidents since 1944 from Perth County: Claire Belluz in 1972 and Paul A. Nairn in 1991.

 

She has succeeded Jamie Schultz of Renfrew County, the 2022 president. The process included the traditional passing on of Gordie, the iconic stuffed bear that is given from president to president that is said to be done to keep the current president from losing the historical president’s pin.

 

This continued an impressive run in the Junior Farmers organization for Oudshoorn, who has steadily rose in the ranks since joining in 2019 as part of a natural progression from her extensive 4-H involvement, from which she aged out, but stayed on as a leader.

 

At the end of her first year with the Huron-Perth Junior Farmers, 2019, she was elected vice-president. In 2020, she won the Junior Farmers Association of Ontario Novice Outstanding Member Award for 2019, one of the association’s President’s Rose Awards.

 

The next year, Oudshoorn and Lauren Bos, her fellow Huron Perth Junior Farmers member and another Auburn-area resident, were named co-winners of the association’s President’s Rose Award for Most Outstanding Current Member. It was the first time that two members had been awarded in the same year. In that same year, the local club was named Agriculture Club of the Year for its “Who Let The Hogs Out?” fundraiser.

 

Over the course of the year, Oudshoorn worked to plan a number of events for the Junior Farmers of Ontario, including the annual leadership conference, which is traditionally held in June.

 

One of the most interesting aspects of being the president over the past year has been welcoming international delegates to Ontario. Not only was it great to show them what Ontario is like and how the provincial organization operates, but Oudshoorn said she was so interested to hear from them about the groups in their countries, their opportunities and challenges and all of the similarities and differences between the countries. 

 

In the past year, seven international delegates came to Ontario from Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Austria, Germany, Switzerland and two from Scotland.

 

Meeting these people and getting to know them has opened some new doors for Oudshoorn, who has since applied to be part of the Junior Farmers exchange program this summer. She doesn’t know if she’s been approved yet, but she will soon, and, if she is, she’ll be spending some time in Northern Ireland as part of the program.

 

One of the things Oudshoorn oversaw over the course of the year was the return to in-person events in a lot of cases. Because of when she first got involved with the Junior Farmers of Ontario, she wasn’t able to experience a lot of the organization’s traditional events in person. They were either held virtually or truncated, so, being able to return to in-person events in a safe manner, she said, has been a nice change over the course of the last year.

 

She says there hasn’t been any added stress as a result of returning to these events, mostly because of the stellar team she has around her. She said the executive has been a great help and she couldn’t have accomplished all that she has without them. On that note, she said the support she’s received from her friends and family, as well as from her community, has been a great help as well.

 

Another highlight from the year was taking part in a rural economic development summit at the behest of Lisa Thompson, Huron-Bruce MPP and Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

 

She also attended as many local chapter meetings as she could, which she loved for the opportunity to connect with members from different counties and learn about the differences and similarities between them and her very own Huron-Perth chapter.