Wayne Braun

Wayne Braun grew up in Northfield, Vermont working on his family's farm. He helped feed the animals and he rode tractors around, the usual country boy. He attended two years of high school at Spaulding and was at the top of his class, but he didn't like how kids there were all in their separate cliques and weren't accepting to new people. So, Wayne chose to go to Rice for the next 2 years. He was a big athlete in track, lacrosse and hockey. He had lots of friends. He attended Clarkson University in Potsdam New York and worked on planes. His favorite memory there was flying the planes in competitions. After college he worked in Seattle on an aircraft. Wayne didn't enjoy it so he moved back to Vermont. When he was back in his home state, he got a job in his family business at People's United Bank.

At that point of his life, he suddenly felt a calling to youth ministry. So that is exactly what Wayne did. Currently he teaches the 8th grade youth group at the Holy Family parish hall. He also participates in other church events such as serve your neighbor day, he planned for my class to help at the soup kitchen and, being a youth group teacher he has to plans all the classes and activities. For example at the end of each year, as a class we go to Pizza Putt and play laser tag and have pizza. Wayne also planned as I mentioned helps out at a soup kitchen in Burlington. We prepared a meal and fed the homeless or the less fortunate who came in and we also got to eat the meal after everyone left all because of Wayne. He maps out all the classes and subjects that we will mainly focus on.

"Of course there are challenges" says Wayne. He said that keeping a young group of teenagers is tough to keep them interested and keep them coming back even through all their crazy sports schedules. He said that the biggest highlight for him is knowing that he made a positive impact on young people because of how damaged some teens are getting. He likes to know that he's helping some of them. Even though he doesn't always see the change in the 7 or so months that we all spend together, he still likes to make an impact. Braun said that in his life he had many mentors and positive people who impacted his life in great ways and he wanted to be someone's hero just like the people that he looked up to. That is his main goal to focus in youth ministry.