Contributed Photo: DAR Good Citizen Awards for 2024 were presented to high school seniors. Here, Kiersten Taylor receives the DAR Good Citizen Award at Safford High School from Bonnie Briscoe, left, and Peggy Moon, local Gila Valley Chapter members.
By Bonnie Briscoe/DAR Member
In May, the Gila Valley Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution presented the 2024 DAR Good Citizen Award at honor assemblies at high schools in Graham and Greenlee Counties. One student was chosen from each senior class based on the exceptional ways he or she demonstrated qualities of dependability, service, leadership, and patriotism in their homes, schools, and communities. The process for making the selection varied with each school but included school administrators, teachers, counselors, and students from the senior class. The following are the honored good citizens, their qualities, and involvement in activities for this award:
Alizabeth Aguilar, from Morenci High School, “Lizzy” as she is known to her peers and friends is a team player with both outstanding communication and leadership skills.
She is constantly giving her time to help others. Many times, she has offered to assist her peers with classroom concepts that they may need help with. Time and again, she has mentored younger players at softball and volleyball practices. Whether in the classroom, out on the court, or on the field, she has gained the respect and admiration of others.
She is a 4-year member of not only the Varsity softball team but also the Varsity volleyball team, where she is an outstanding student-athlete. In addition, she is a member of the National Honor Society, Math Honor Society, Science National Honor Society, and Spanish Honor Society. Alizabeth feels that being a part of the sports teams and the different honor societies have shaped her into the leader she is today.
In addition to her busy schedule, she has been taking EAC classes for the last two years and graduated with an Associate’s Degree before graduating from high school. This has all been done while maintaining a 3.8 GPA and ranked in the top ten of her class.
Her above-average performances in her academic and extracurricular activities are a direct result of her hard work and strong focus. Alizabeth has consistently demonstrated an ability to rise to any challenge that she must face, which definitely speaks of someone with exceptionally good citizen qualities.
Alizabeth is the daughter of Shari and Ricardo Aguilar of Clifton.
Rachel Sumner, from Duncan High School, is an active, deeply devoted, and well-rounded young person at school and in the community. She has made Duncan High School a better place in the four years she has been there.
At school, she helps the adults as well as her fellow students. She works with underclassmen in helping them to better understand their assignments. With her strength of character, she is willing to stand up to peer pressure for the cause of honesty in the classroom. She is a great aide in the school office. In being active in many sports and clubs, where she has held leadership positions, the coaches and advisors are always able to count on her for cooperation and help.
Outside of school, these same qualities show up with her involvement in her church, 4-H, competition in rodeo events, and livestock judging and showmanship.
Incredibly selfless with her time, she is involved in distributing food to those in need at the Duncan Food Bank; visiting those in nursing homes; doing clean-ups on the highways, in the rivers, and at the cemeteries; planting flowers in the local park; and Christmas caroling to homes of senior citizens.
With Rachel showing a deep interest in the community, she was asked why she likes to volunteer. She replied, “I like to give back to my community. It gives me great joy to be able to help people. I like knowing that I am making a difference.”
Rachel is the daughter of Amber and Tim Sumner of Duncan.
Yasmine Pasley, from Mount Graham High School, is not only an outstanding student in the Culinary Arts program but also the secretary of the school’s Family, Career & Community Leaders of America Chapter (FCCLA). She is the kind of student who can be trusted with any task and is a terrific go-to person. Being a natural leader, she is responsible, well mannered, shows respect to those around her, carries herself with grace, rarely misses school, and is always happy.
Yasmine loves being involved with her community and helps anywhere she is needed. She volunteered with the Chamber of Commerce to help set up at the Salsa Fest; for the VFW Auxiliary Nickel Auction, she not only volunteered at this event where needed but donated baked goods for their sale; and she helped with DAR’s Chocolate Covered Strawberry fundraiser on Valentine’s Day, developing quite a skill at swizzling chocolate on strawberries.
For FCCLA, she helped with sales in the school snack bar. Some of the money earned was used to help pay for the trip to the FCCLA State Leadership Conference in Tucson. Even though she entered an amazing-looking cake in the cake decorating competition during the conference, she did not place due to a high number of entries. Most students would have been very disappointed, but Yasmine was cheerful and remarked what an amazing learning experience it was.
Added to her numerous accomplishments, last November through the GIFT program, she was selected from Mount Graham High School as a Student of Merit in Culinary Arts.
Yasmine is the daughter of Celeste Peru and Uriah Pasley of Safford.
Kiersten Taylor, from Safford High School, considers her biggest involvement is going to church and participating in Bible study every Sunday. She believes it is truly the best thing in the world to have a relationship with Christ.
Since the age of four, she has been an avid softball player; a sport that has taught her how to be a leader, to communicate, to have good sportsmanship and to work hard every time she steps on or off the field.
Kiersten has been deeply committed to the school’s Link Crew program, giving her the chance to interact with and help the new freshmen who are scared and nervous about starting high school. She loves being the person they can go to if they need anything, whether they just need a friend or someone to talk to.
With a strong sense of patriotism, Kiersten is proud to be an American in a country that has so much freedom and a government, though not perfect, that runs things to make our country better.
Kiersten is the type of student that teachers love to have in a class. She works hard and is incredibly clever and witty, bringing fun and laughter to the classroom. She is honest, trustworthy, and respectful. She uplifts others by having a positive outlook. She cares about those who are not as fortunate as she is and often reaches out to help them. Her humility keeps her from realizing how great a person she is. Without any doubt, Kiersten is an outstanding representative of Safford High School and a strong patriot of our country’s values.
Kiersten is the daughter of Christi and Stephan Taylor of Safford.
Wyatt Knudsen, from Thatcher High School, is always very helpful and friendly to everyone. He is an all-around good person who cares about others.
While sports, which includes cross country, wrestling, and tennis, play a huge role in Wyatt’s life, it is music, which involves the Show Choir and Quartets, that is the most influential part of his life. In both of these areas, along with Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), he has made some incredible friends.
He loves to do service and is always excited to get the opportunity to help where there is a need, no matter how big or small. Big projects he thoroughly enjoyed helping with included cleaning up Cluff Ponds, the school campus, and food drives. However, his favorite type of service is what he calls “simple service”; when a friend calls to ask a favor, a helping hand, or has questions that need answers. This kind of service that lifts up his closest peers is his absolute favorite as well as the most beneficial service to him.
With this in mind, if Wyatt could give one piece of advice to the next generation, it would be “to find joy in simple service, and always answer the call. Someday, you might become known as someone who always answers when called upon, or someone who never makes time to do so. How do you want to be remembered, and how can you help those in need? Treat everyone with kindness, and it will find its way back to you.”
Wyatt is the son of Jenny and Andrew Knudsen of Thatcher.
Abby Logan, from Pima High School, is not only a good citizen but a leader and a dependable student. She is respected by both staff and students and is known for her good character and integrity. During her high school years, she was involved in Band, Orchestra, Track, and Cheer.
Abby joined the band when she was in 6th grade. Ever since then, she has been a positive influence on those around her. As she has grown, she has taken on leadership roles in class including being part of the band council, becoming a drum major for the band, a section leader in the orchestra, and a concertmaster in the orchestra.
Even though Abby is a leader, she is a friend to all. She is always positive, works extremely hard towards her goals, and gets along with everyone. She is reliable and is always thinking ahead of not only what needs to be done, but how to get it done.
Track and Cheer have taught her a lot about teamwork, where she learned to include everyone on her team and create strong relationships.
Outside of school, Abby is always there to help out other people with anything they need help with. She loves to be involved! She tries to include everyone in everything that she does. It doesn’t matter what hobbies others like to do, what grades they have in school, what sports they play, or what their home life looks like. She is always kind to everyone and tries to make everyone feel like their best self.
Abby is the daughter of Diana and Tim Logan of Pima.
Tyesha Wilson, from Fort Thomas High School, is the type of person you want to have around, always very respectful and easy to get along with. Her smile and laugh are contagious, putting everyone in a better mood. Her personality is bubbly, and she maintains that personality when attempting to involve others in activities, even when some appear to be not interested.
Through the years, she has developed into a strong young woman. While growing up is not without its bumps, Tyesha has handled her hardships and disappointments with a sense of good citizenship and responsibility.
Her leadership has been remarkable. Each year she served as a leader on the sports teams she played with and showed her abilities to help affect people on and off the court. She has been very dependable and has influenced many others to do the right thing and commit to something bigger than oneself.
Her charisma allows her to lead effortlessly and makes others want to follow her. The underclassmen seek her approval and ask for her help in becoming better players. Multiple times she has consoled those in need and does her best to help them be able to move through their current hard times. She even takes her own time to not leave someone in need until things are better.
Tyesha has worked extremely hard playing multiple sports while maintaining her grades and
personal life. In the sporting world, things don’t always go according to plan; however, Tyesha handled those adversities, showing a great source of resiliency and maturity.
As she moves forward, she wants to continue to be a positive influence for her family and community.
Tyesha is the daughter of Tasha Kitcheyan of Bylas.
The Gila Valley Chapter members presenting the DAR Good Citizen Awards at the high school honor assemblies were Sue Ellen Angle, Natalie Baker, Bonnie Briscoe, Vicki Foote, Talana Hooper, Helen Masten, Peggy Moon, Amie Savage, and Carolyn Whitmore.
