Moose Creek (Rural Roots Canada) – What would you do with a quarter-acre if you were given a chance?

Wanna Make It Farm, located in Moose Creek, Ontario, has come up with a unique way to give teenagers an opportunity to build on their ideas and gain entrepreneurial skills.

The 1-Acre Challenge will see four teams working to try and come up with the most sustainable, profitable, and unique way of using a quarter-acre.  The winner will get 10-thousand dollars towards their post-secondary education.

The family behind this unique and empowering challenge is the Leducs.

Erin and her brother Patrick, co-owners of Wanna Make It Farm, wanted to find a way to give back, and it was during a drive one day where the seed for the initiative was planted.

Erin says they wanted something that would have a local impact and intertwine with some of their passions.

“We brought it forward to everybody one day and everybody kind of started chipping in some ideas, and that’s kind of where this came about,” Erin said.

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Garrett Munro, a Grain Merchandiser on the farm, says this will let younger people explore opportunities.

“It’s an opportunity that a lot of people don’t have, and I think there’s a bit of a separation from people that are directly involved in farming even though they’re in farm communities, sometimes they’re not involved with the farm directly,” Munro said.

He adds getting involved in the Ag sector is a daunting task with many barriers to overcome.

“There’s a lot of people with fantastic ideas; there’s just no vehicle to explore those ideas.”

Megan Leduc, who handles office administration, says they will be showing off what the successful applicants come up with on social media.

“I think it’s great that the youth can really explore their creativity with this and can really think outside of the box,” Megan says.

She says this makes it a real cool summer job, adding it is what they make it.

“I think it’s really great to give people that opportunity, and you can see what works and what doesn’t work.”

They also plan to make it easy for everyone to follow along with the competition on Facebook.

“It’s going to be good for not only the kids, but for the community to see, what the struggles are as well as what the successes are.”

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The contest is open to youth aged 13-18 who live in Eastern Ontario within easy driving distance to the farm in Moose Creek.

For more information on the contest, click here.