Megan Fitzgerald is breaking the mould of elected members in Mid Canterbury.
The 26-year-old Fitzgerald is by far the youngest person to successfully stand in the Ashburton District’s local body elections, winning a seat on the Methven Community Board.
She takes the mantle of the youngest from fellow community board member Richie Owen, who has some 15-plus years on her, and compared to the current crop of councillors-elect, Fitzgerald is half the age of the youngest member.
She is a fresh face and a youth voice on the local governance scene.
“I’m going to use the Methven Community Board as an experience to see if it is something that aligns with where I want to head in life. I’m really passionate about community development and I see the council as a pivotal spot for supporting our communities now and into the future.”
Fitzgerald will bring a younger voice to the table but said it’s not the age and gender of the voice, it is what it’s saying that should matter when representing the community.
“Everyone has their own natural bias and perspective, so having diversity on a board feeds into making more robust decisions, ones that represent a wider demographic of the community.
“We need representation from the older demographic and people in between.
Born and bred in the Methven area, Fitzgerald attended Lauriston Primary and then Mount Hutt College, before heading to Lincoln University to complete a Bachelor of Agricultural Science.
A keen hockey goalie, she has played for Canterbury, but suffered a severe concussion in 2016.
“I had to stop studying and just take a step back, as it took me three months to recover.
“As I was getting back into things, I ended up working with St John as a volunteer on the ambulance for 18 months.
“I realised how important mental health and well-being are.”
It was a turning point for her.
She then got an opportunity to work in Malawi doing community development, and went to the Netherlands and studied international land and water management – “really around co-ordinating people and the environment to produce food”.
She continued with post-graduate studies at Lincoln, completing a master’s on connecting smallholders to high value vegetable supply chains in Malawi, spending another three months in Africa, and handed in her thesis at the start of the year.
As she was studying part-time for those two years, Fitzgerald also started with Wellbeing Ōpuke.
“It’s a community initiative trying to drive well-being objectives.
“We took it from a group of community members to a full trust with two employees.”
With her studies completed, she has taken up a part-time role with a farm consultancy business.
“It’s been quite a journey.”
Now she is embarking on a career in local politics, set to be sworn in as a Methven Community Board member on Thursday.
Fitzgerald joins returning board members Kelvin Holmes and Richie Owen as well as fellow newcomers Allan Lock and Robin Jenkinson.

• By Jonathan Leask