The OYF Memorial Scholarship was established in memory of the late Martin Streef – president Streef Produce Ltd., a family-run fresh fruit and vegetable business in Woodstock Ontario – to help future generations of Canadians pursue their passion for agriculture. In 1996, Streef was recognized as both Ontario’s and Canada’s Outstanding Young Farmer. He died in April 2008.

The Martin Streef Memorial Scholarship is available to any full-time student in their final year of secondary school who is about to enter a post secondary institution, or is currently registered in a post secondary institution leading to a degree or diploma.  This individual related somehow to an Ontario Outstanding Young Farmer alumni. The application deadline for the 2010 OYF Memorial Scholarship is June 30, 2010. Click here for an application form.

Congratulations to Alisha Burgess, winner of the 2010 Ontario’s Outstanding Young Farmer

Alisha Burgess, a student at Fanshawe College studying Early Childhood Education has been selected as the recipient of a the Martin Streef Memorial Scholarship from Ontario’s Outstanding Young Farmers (OYF) program. The $500 Scholarship was established in memory of the late Martin Streef.

Burgess, from Mildmay, Ontario, is heavily involved in the 4-H program, completing 51 projects. In 2005, 2007 and 2009, she was selected to show her Jersey heifer calf at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair. She was also selected as the Female 4-H Achiever of the Year by the Western Fair Association. As stated by Kathryn Lambert, a 4-H Ontario Regional Specialist, besides working on her family dairy farm, “Alisha also finds the time to be very active within her community and school, including volunteering at a local nursing home, working with a local catering company and being active within the Hanover and Mildmay Agricultural Society.”   

As part of the scholarship nomination, each applicant was required to provide a short essay to answer the question “Why is Agriculture Important to Ontario?” Alisha’s response focuses on the economic significance of the agricultural industry in the province. “When you walk around the grocery store and look at everything on the shelves, you will realize that everything but plastic is from the agricultural industry. Items that people don’t even consider as coming from agriculture, like toilet paper, tissues, cotton, to name a few, have been put there by a farmer.”

Alisha will be officially recognized at the OYF On

tario regional banquet on March 11 in Ajax. More information on the banquet, including how to obtain tickets, is available at www.oyfontario.ca.