Rotary Student of the Month: September

September Students of the Month are from Deer Park and Riverside High Schools.  Mary Walker’s Student Body President will be our guest next month, along with the October Students of the Month.

Riverside High School

Braiden Sparkes is Student Body President at Riverside High School. Braiden has a younger brother who is also a student at Riverside; his mother is a teacher in School District 81, and his father is a hunter who has land in Washington, Idaho and Montana.  In introducing Braiden, Bob Carroll pointed out that he is a departure from past students who are usually focused on further education. Braiden’s goal is to see if he has a future in hockey. As a junior, he moved to Seattle and lived with a host family where he played on a hockey team.  He attended a school with 2500 students, and that experience made him appreciate the size of Riverside where he feels at home.

Braiden is also on the football team, and said he is very competitive and wants to be the best in whatever he does. Through his ASB involvement, he tries to involve freshmen so that the good student atmosphere at Riverside continues, and he wants everyone to feel a part of the school.  After high school, he hopes to receive a hockey scholarship, pursue criminology and someday be a member of the FBI.

Deer Park High School

Everett Pierce, was introduced as an outstanding student with intense mental and physical strength by Deer Park HS Principal Joe Fiest.  Everett suffered a knee injury while wrestling a year ago, and was told it would take a year for him to recover before he could compete in athletics again.  He wouldn’t accept that prognosis and was back in sports after 3 ½ months. He said he didn’t want to accept failure and wants to be the best he can.

Along with football, wrestling, and ASB, Everett is a member of Key Club and Link Crew.  He wants to give back to the school and says that helping someone makes your day better. Everett also introduced his father Aaron, an employee at the Deer Park Post Office for many years and his mother, Jennifer, who works at Acceptance Capital Mortgage in Spokane.

Outside of school, Everett likes to hang out with friends and family.  He has candidate status with the US Naval Academy, where he hopes to attend, and eventually become an officer in the Marine Corps.  Everett concluded in thanking the club for selecting him as Student of the Month.

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