The Stayton Area Rotary honored Bailey Turner of Stayton High and Alex Pelayo of Regis/St. Mary on March 13 as Future First Citizens at the Stayton Sublimity Chamber of Commerce annual awards luncheon.
Bailey Turner, Stayton
Turner, 18, a lifelong Stayton resident, said she was “very surprised and very shocked” at being named for the Stayton honor.
But if you listen to her background for 15 minutes, the shock wears off pretty quick. Turner gets up early, works hard and achieves at an extremely high level.
A key to her development, she said, was involvement in ASB at Stayton High, where she’s served on the engagement committee. That led to a state ASB convention in Seaside, which led to a breakout room session where she learned about the Make A Wish group. Which led to an effort to get matched with a child. Ultimately, it lead to a Disney World trip that fulfilled the child’s wish.
“It really opened my eyes,” she said. “It’s an amazing thing to be involved with. Make A Wish involvement was a big thing for me.”
The classroom has provided challenges along the way. Turner remembers a college algebra class she took that “was very tough. We had a great teacher who really helped me.”
As a sophomore she took an AP Psychology class in which virtually all other students were seniors. “There was a time that I was falling behind but my teacher (Brad Emmert) really encouraged me. I am glad I stuck with it.”
Other influences Turner mentioned included former basketball coach Aaron Muhic (Turner kept stats for the team) and Alonzo Gonzalez, one of the girls soccer coaches and also a school counselor. Turner played goalkeeper for the Eagles.
Turner plans to attend Western Oregon University in the fall, hoping to study criminology and minor in psychology.
A career in law enforcement possibly beckons, although Turner noted that she would likely start as a police officer and could not directly move to investigations or forensics. At least not right away.
Alex Pelayo, Regis
Pelayo said he was quietly confident when he went in for the Rotary interview. “I’m more of an outgoing person,” he said, “and I try to help people in my community.”
In fact, the 17-year-old lifelong Stayton resident has started working with Stayton honoree Bailey Turner this year because of the Make A Wish group.
It’s a natural bit of networking given Turner’s ASB involvement and Pelayo’s four years on the student council at Regis – he is student body president this year.
“She reached out to me,” Pelayo said, “and I was 100% behind it. Our schools are right across the fence from each other and yet we’ve never really worked together. We wanted to change that.”
Other community involvement for Pelayo has included volunteering at a veterinary clinic and working with a student in Ghana as his capstone project.
Student government and academics have kept him busy, but he found time for theater all four years at Regis, participating in both the fall play and the spring musical.
“Balancing high school work with the extracurricular hasn’t been easy,” he said. “This has been my most difficult year by far.” Pelayo gave a lot of the credit for his Regis success to English teacher and drama supervisor Anna Boedigheimer.
“I’ve known her since the sixth grade,” he said. “I’ve learned a lot of valuable lessons from her and she has taught me how to be a good person and really helped my confidence in theater.”
Pelayo is retiring from theater and said “I will be sad to see theater go. It helped me a lot in building confidence and lasting relationships.” He plans to attend Oregon State University in the fall to major in biology with a minor in Spanish and move on to OSU’s highly regarded veterinary school after his undergraduate days.
