MARYSVILLE – Francinne Alarcon and Caden Natterstad, two seniors at Marysville Getchell High School, are the Marysville Soroptimist-Kiwanis clubs Students of the Month for October.

Alarcon said she joined the school’s Key Club as a freshman.

“I developed a passion for community service,” she said. “It’s so important to give back. Everyone should contribute to make the world a better place.”

She received a varsity letter in community service with 172 hours last year. Alarcon said Key Club wasn’t popular in her early years, but she and others have helped it double in size. She has volunteered with the food bank, helps with the YMCA’s Community Dinners for the homeless, and sells food at such Kiwanis events as the Oyster Run, Fishing Derby, Movies in the Park and Touch-a-Truck.

She said she wants to be remembered as someone involved in building a great Key Club.

“It changed my life,” she said, adding she was secretary of the club last year and vice president this year.

Alarcon also is president of the school’s National Honor Society, after being secretary last year, and was Bio-Med’s Student of the Semester last spring.

She would like to attend the University of Washington and become a physical therapist.

Alarcon, who said she used to be shy, likes to challenge herself and branch out and try different things. That’s why she was treasurer of the junior class last year on the Associated Student Body.

That’s also why as a sophomore she joined the Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps. With NJROTC, she received a varsity letter as a member of the academic team. She said being involved in that group helped her become more disciplined, accountable and a team player.

Caden Natterstad

Natterstad, who wants to be a high school teacher, also is involved with volunteerism, especially with DECA, ASB, honor society and Future Business Leaders of America.

He is involved in leadership activities as ASB vice president. With FBLA they have adopted a street, ran a food drive and hosted bazaars. He is DECA co-president after being VP as a junior and communications officer as a sophomore. Their projects include fundraising, helping disabled youth with the Miracle League, food bank and the Seattle Children’s Hospital Toy Drive. With DECA he placed fifth with his Entrepreneur Innovation Plan.

Natterstad also is a counselor at Cedar Springs Camp in Lake Stevens. He has taken a number of Advanced Placement classes and has a 3.984 grade point average.

He has seen a lot of change at MG, but rather than grumble about it he’s involved in trying to bring out the positives. He is part of a Mentorship Program where upper classmen help guide freshmen in their first year there. He also is part of “Be The Change North West.” This group does good deeds in the community, such as replacing batteries in fire detectors.

He had a friend who was a senior last year who always built him up. So Natterstad wants to do that, too. That’s how he wants to be remembered.

“Never, never give up” is his motto.

Sarah Turral

Sarah Turral and Jordan Luton, seniors at Marysville-Pilchuck High School, are the September Students of the Month, as chosen by the Marysville Kiwanis and Soroptimist clubs.

Turral stands out in community service and still is one of four valedictorians at the school with a 4.0 grade point average.

She spent hundreds of hours last summer volunteering as queen of the Strawberry Festival, appearing in parades all over the Northwest. She also donated more than 135 hours as a timekeeper at M-P boys swim meets. Turral is very involved in her church, as part of the band, plays, Vacation Bible School, Children’s Church and feeding the homeless.

Turral tutors and participates in Operation Shoebox, sending toys to Third World countries.

She feels fortunate to have been the festival queen.

“Opportunities were brought to me” that I might not have had otherwise, she said. “It didn’t feel like work. It was fun.”

Turral plays tenor sax in the school concert, jazz and pep bands, along with being in the pit orchestra. She is on the cross country and golf teams. Turral, who wants to go to the University of Washington and become an engineer, is on M-P’s Hi-Q team. Last year she became the team’s expert in art history and geography.

In her free time she likes to read and be with her family hiking and traveling.

Turral said her parents are upbeat most of the time, and she likes to be that way, too. When people are sad and negative, she likes to act the opposite way.

“My attitude is positive, although not always in cross country,” she said with a laugh. “And to be kind to others.”

Jordan Luton

Luton, who has a 3.88 gpa, also excels at community service. Through his love for baseball he helps coach youth teams, does some umpiring and also cleans up Marysville Little League fields.

A first team All-Wesco catcher, he is captain of the M-P baseball team and will lead the squad this winter in practices, as coaches are not allowed to be a part of that. He would like to play baseball in community college. He is looking at Edmonds, Shoreline and others.

He is also a receiver and a three-year letterman on the football team. His older brother, Jake, who has been a huge influence on him, is quarterback for the Oregon State Beavers. Luton said he has some friends who volunteered with the school’s Life Skills students, so he joined with them last year. “Those relationships are awesome and fun,” he said, adding one still calls him early in the morning. He said he doesn’t want to be known as some “jerk jock guy.”

“It’s a privilege to be an athlete,” Luton said. “I’m outgoing and like to reach out to others.”

He plans to get a bachelor’s degree in either sociology or criminal justice. He would like to go to law school. If that doesn’t work out he wouldn’t mind being a firefighter, which is the career many in his family have chosen. A third career might be one he’s already doing – landscaping.

“You see the work you do” as it happens, he said.