Castaic High School senior Broden Weeks has enough hours to get a second President’s Volunteer Service Award, said his dad, Shane Weeks. His son received the award last year. But that’s not why he volunteers.
According to his dad, Weeks just loves to do the work.
“The first award he got was a surprise. We surprised him with it,” Weeks’ dad said in a recent telephone interview. “So, yeah, he has enough hours to get another one, but he’s like, ‘I don’t need another one, Dad. I’m good. I got my publicity from it.’ That’s just the kind of kid he is.”
Weeks said his ultimate goal is to be a public information officer for the Los Angeles County Fire Department. As a kid, his dad said his son wasn’t interested in sports, despite his dad having been very involved in sports when he was the same age. Weeks wanted to go see fires.
Shane Weeks obliged his son and took him to every emergency scene he could, barring anything horrific, his dad said, and Weeks would document the scenes on video.
“That turned into him putting little videos together,” Shane said, “which turned into him becoming part of the middle school media department. Well, it also really got him excited about becoming a fireman. And then at some point, he realized, ‘Hey, I can do those two things together.’”
Weeks said he first thought he wanted to be a pilot for the Fire Department. He’s not sure where the goal came from. But it changed as he began going to more fires and watching firefighters work.
It was a film class at Castaic Middle School that got him interested in shooting video. He’d eventually get a police scanner, and he’d continue going to emergency incidents. He found some mentors along the way who taught him how to turn his videos into news reports.
“I continued to pursue it through high school,” Weeks said in an interview over the phone. “I continued to make more connections, go to more media events, connect with people, and that’s where I am now.”
Part of the draw to what he wants to do, he said, comes from Weeks’ need to be safe. As a kid, he always made sure to wear a helmet, he took dangers seriously, and as he grew older, he felt a need to want to help others be safe. In elementary school, he used to help yard duties with their tasks to keep the school grounds safe.
That urge to help others continued to grow. He began to volunteer his time to multiple causes.
Weeks’ dad said that about a third of his son’s hours go to the Castaic Lake Junior Lifeguard program, in which Weeks works an assistant instructor; another third of his hours goes to the video and tech work he does at Castaic High School, shooting sports events and making graphics for the school’s digital graphic scoreboard table, among other things; and the last third of his volunteer work goes toward the work he does in the community, like producing videos for the Los Angeles County Fire and Sheriff’s departments.
One project Weeks took on, according to his dad, was a video showing the fight against the Chiquita Canyon Landfill regarding the smells that people have said impact their lives.
All that work combined led to recognition that Weeks received last year.
Vince Ferry, then-principal of Castaic High School, during a February 2024 faculty meeting where he presented Weeks with the gold-level President’s Volunteer Service Award, praised Weeks for his dedication in everything he does.
“I can’t imagine this place without Broden,” Ferry said at the event. “He’s an amazing man. We know his parents are doing an exceptional job raising the paradigm of what not only a student, but a child should be.”
After graduation, Weeks hopes to continue dedicating his life to helping others by pursuing a career in firefighting, with the ultimate goal of transitioning into the role of public information officer.
He plans to attend College of the Canyons to study communications while also taking part in the Los Angeles County Lifeguards program. He wants to get EMT certified, transfer to California State University, Northridge, or California State University, Channel Islands, and upon graduation, he’ll then look into becoming a firefighter.
“To be a PIO,” Weeks’ dad said, “you actually have to climb through the ranks. … The kid is motivated.”
Meanwhile, Weeks is doing all he can now to begin his journey. In a video he made as part of his application for the Taco Bell Foundation’s Live Más scholarship, Weeks spoke about throwing himself into every opportunity he could find, like volunteering at pep rallies after school, sports events and tours for prospective students.
“If there’s a task to do, I want to be part of it,” he said in the video. “This opened the door to incredible opportunities for me to step into leadership roles and give back the care and support I had once received, opportunities like executive producer of my school’s media department and news program; lead student theater technician for my school district, managing my school’s theater; the lead Cadet for my school district’s Fire Academy; and an assistant instructor for our local Junior Lifeguard summer camp.”
Weeks spoke about how, that day, he’d just read the letter he wrote to himself when he was a high-school freshman. He was blown away by what he wrote.
His letter to himself was sort of a checklist, a “things-to-do” document to see if he could accomplish goals he’d set four years ago.
“In the letter, I was like, ‘I hope you’re driving’ and ‘I hope you’re continuing to volunteer,’ and stuff like that,” Weeks said. “To be able to answer those questions with a yes is kind of cool, to know my younger self was wanting me to become this way.”
Know any unsung heroes or people in the SCV with an interesting life story to tell? Email [email protected].
