Brandon Husvar Honored by NYS

Newtown Youth Services announced this week that Brandon Husvar was their Job Bank Member of the Month for his outstanding work and positive attitude in the month of November.

Brandon, who turns 14 Friday, December 10, has only been a member of Job Bank since August, but he has quickly earned the reputation of a hard worker who sees tasks out to their completion.

His last job, for which he was nominated for the Newtown Youth Services award, was raking the leaves that covered Helen Gottschalk’s half-acre backyard on Key Rock Road.

Over the course of two days Brandon cleared Mrs Gottschalk’s lawn of compost, taking care to rake under her large oak trees and around her walkways.

“I’ve lived here for 35 years and this is the best job that anyone has ever done,” said Mrs Gottchalk Wednesday. “I wish everybody could have a job done like this.”

Mrs Gottschalk, who said she would not hesitate having Brandon do more work for her, promptly asked if Brandon was available this coming summer to cut her lawn.

“It was a pretty big yard, but I kept working until it was dark,” Brandon admitted. “I feel good helping Mrs Gottschalk because she really needed some help cleaning up her yard, and I was glad to help her.”

For now, Brandon, who lives in Sandy Hook, is patiently waiting for his next Job Bank assignment.

Job Bank is a Newtown Youth Service sponsored program that seeks to match qualified 14- to 17-year-old students with appropriate odd jobs. After filling out an initial application, an interview process takes place to ascertain a particular student’s strengths and to check references. Afterwards, a students name is placed in the Job Bank file, where they are assigned to particular residents who call up needing help around the house, such as raking leaves, shoveling snow and babysitting.

Newtown Youth Services has divided the town into sectors, so students can take jobs close to where they live.

 Newtown Youth Services encourages any students interested in joining the Job Bank to call 270-4335.