Ex-Drug Dealer Turns
Over 'A New Leaf' as a Hard-Working Farmer,
Market Vendor and
Mentor
Ever
heard of him? Neither had I...until I read a true story written by
Molly Hayes and published in The Hamilton Spectator April 16, 2015.
Heroes are not always people with recognized names. Recently, I
noticed a couple TV commercials depicting a mother hugging her
daughter and father hugging his son about an achievement. The
message given by each was, “I may not be your hero...but I Am
His/Hers!”
“A
hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength
to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.”
(Christopher Reeve)
Josh
Garrick figured he'd be dead by now...or at the very least, back in
jail. If you'd asked him 10, even 5 years ago, he'd have said the
last place he expected to be at age 28 was on a farm. “Things work
out funny like that,” he says, as he trudges through the mud at A
New Leaf Farm
in
Mount Hope...a few kilometres south of Hamilton. There's lots to do:
the soil in the garden needs turning...and there are eggs to be
collected. His first stop is the pig pen...the fence is still busted
after the pigs broke out last week. “Redneck innovation,” he
laughs, yelling over the chorus of chickens, ducks, guinea hens and
turkeys roaming the grass.
Garrick first moved to his family's Chippewa Road West farm when he
was 13. His mom, Cathy Ozols, had grown up there, back when it was
Queensland dairy farm...and bought it after her father's death so it
would stay in the family. She was happy to get Josh out of the city!
“We moved him to keep him out of trouble...ha!” she says. “It
didn't work,” she says. He hated country life and at age 16 he
moved out...back to downtown Hamilton and then to London, Ontario,
where at the top of his game, he was wholesaling cocaine and
OxyContin...a 'business' where he saw more than one friend killed and
found himself in and out of jail.
But when he got out of jail for the last time three years ago at age
25, he decided he was done getting into trouble. “I went crazy.
This farm...saved my life,” Garrick says. He didn't have a choice
at first. His mom had bailed him out and he had to live with her
there as part of his release conditions. But, committed to learning
the ropes, he did an internship at a farm in Plantagenet, Ontario
that his mom says was visibly 'life-changing.'
Before
he went to jail that last time, he'd enrolled in 'Business
Administration' at Mohawk College where he came up with a business
plan for a farm as part of a school project...however, he was
arrested before he could finish the program. But as he sat in a jail
cell, he thought more about it. He even came up with a new name for
the family farm: A
New Leaf Farm.
“This
was my new
leaf,”
he explained, waving at the 97 acres surrounding him...and he hoped
it could be for others too. “Not just criminals, just anyone who's
having a rough time...there's only so much to do here, but if we can
afford to take someone on, it's a perfect place to relax and your
head straight.”
He's not making nearly the same money he did selling drugs.
“I'm
looking to find peace ~ more than I'm looking for money.”
Last year, a guy Josh knew who'd been having some trouble, came to
work at the farm in exchange for a place to stay. And a student from
Mohawk worked there for a summer while dealing with depression.
“When
I moved back to the farm I always, in the back of my head, had
thought, 'Oh maybe we'll run a camp or something'...we are so blessed
to have this place that we need to share it. David Lane, executive
director of Hamilton's John Howard Society applauds the idea of
helping those in need of a second chance...who believes that's a
good initiative, no matter what scale it's on.
This
year, the farm has been a refuge for Christina Adkin-Smithers and
her three boys. “All my boys have a form of autism. There are very
few places we get to go where we are invited back a second time,”
she says. But 'A
New Leaf'
was one of those places...and this summer, her family has partnered
with Josh's family to run the gardens: sharing the earnings they
bring in from farmers' markets. On Monday, she smiles as Josh shows
Jacob,18 and Billy, 20 how to throw down hay for the pigs and move
cattle. “I don't care what your past is,” she says. Josh has a
good heart...my son has had a full-on freakout and Josh still asks,
“So, when are you coming back next?”
Selling their produce at the markets is one of Garrick's favourite
parts of being a farmer ~ though even he laughs at the idea of an
ex-con selling homemade preserves at the Ancaster Farmers' Market.
He's
a big guy, with big tattoos ~ when his head's shaved you can see the
literal scars from his past, he says. He's open with customers about
his story and says people have been nothing but supportive. He also
volunteers with Liberty
for Youth
as a mentor for at-risk-youth ~ a program he, himself utilized just a
few years ago.
Executive Director, Frederick Dryden praises Garrick for his
turnaround and for sticking around to help other kids. He also
praises Cathy Ozols, his mom, for being so committed to seeing her
son succeed.
“It
was an amazing journey to see him evolve and embrace
a whole different way of life,” she says.
“I
look at him now when he's all dressed up in his farming gear
and I see my dad. Even in the way he moves and the way he talks.
It's very cool!”
* * * * * * *
Josh Garrick truly is an Unsung Hero!
A
sizeable colour photo taken by Barry Gray shows Josh, donned with
farm boots, t-shirt, knee length red and block shorts...his white cap
tipped off his head onto the farm field as he strongly rope-tugs an
unwilling Butterfly,
a
Jersey brown cow, who obstinately refuses to move into an outdoor
enclosure.
A second black and white shot pictures Josh providing water for his
pigs inside a fenced enclosure.
The final black and white 'says it all'!
Our handsome young farmer, smiling with great pleasure ~
holding an affectionate kid (baby goat) as it nuzzles his face.
A farmer is a man...outstanding in his field.
(an old cliché)
Merle
Baird-Kerr...written April 17, 2015
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