Heart BEAT

Turner Dreams Of Writing For The New York Times

Editor's Note: This is the second of a three-part series of profiles on the winners of this year's Times $500 com- munity service scholarships given to Waitsburg, Prescott and Dayton students. These three seniors were chosen for our scholarship based on community service, grades, need and their bright futures. Garett Turner is the scholar- ship winner from Dayton High School.

D AYTON - Garett Turner has big dreams, a lot of determination and a jacket full of letters to support him.

Turner, who graduated from Dayton High School Saturday, June 2, will be studying journalism at Walla Walla Community College in the fall and he has lofty goals for his degree.

"I like to write," Turner said. "I've always thought it would be cool to find a job writing for something big and then work until I get older. It would be cool to write for the New York Times someday."

His ambitions aren't lim- ited to writing. He has been a three-letter athlete, earning varsity letters in three sports each year since his freshman year. His athleticism was rewarded when he was awarded the WIAA Seattle Times Athlete of the Week af- ter scoring 1000 points in his basketball career. Basketball will be a recurring theme as he continues into college with a basketball scholarship from Walla Walla Community College among several other scholarships he was awarded.

"The highlights of high school were definitely play- ing sports," Turner said.

He said he enjoyed taking English from teacher Mary Pryor. Turner said Pryor helped fuel his dream to write for the New York Times by bringing him a copy of the paper every Monday.

In his freshman year, Turner was asked to help out on Owen Agengroad's Relay for Life team and he served as the team captain for three years.

Turner also worked with the Build A Dog basketball program as well as the bas- ketball camp for fourth, fifth and sixth grade students he worked on for his senior project.

Turner has also helped with other community ser- vice activities around the area, saying he never had to look very hard to find some- thing to participate in.

"Community service projects usually just find me," Turner said. "I just go help out."

His contributions to com- munity service projects even found their way into his relationships. His girlfriend, Nicole Lambert, was a mem- ber of Students Helping Each Other (SHEO) and Turner volunteered for that group out as well.

"I went over to the other side of the state and helped the present for their Draw the Line campaign," Turner said.

Turner said he hopes to be recruited for basketball at a four-year school after his time at Walla Walla Commu- nity College. While he said it would be nice to be recruited by a large, Division 1 school, ultimately he plans to attend whatever school recruits him.

Classes will be a point of interest for Turner in the fall. He said his basketball coach is his adviser and helped create a low-stress schedule for Turner so he can adjust to his first quarter of sports and college. Dayton baseball coach Sal Benavides said Turner was always a coach- able teammate.

"He's attentive," Bena- vides said. "When you tell him what to do and what you want done he's always looking at you and paying attention."

Benavides said Turner batted .400 both years he played baseball which made him a valuable asset to the team. He also said Turner is a natural athlete.

"He's always talking to his teammates," Benavides said. "Pumping them up and helping them out in any way that he can. He's very like- able and hard-working and as a coach that's all you can ask for."

Turner said he is especial- ly excited to take a class with Jennifer Boyden, an English professor and poet who recently returned from China.

"I'm excited for her class because she really knows her stuff," Turner said.

For the rest of the summer, Turner will be working and getting ready for school. He plans to move into an apart- ment in Walla Walla with fel- low Bulldogs Colton Bickel- haupt and Hayden Fullerton.

"I'm just going to be work- ing out and getting ready for next year," Turner said.