Heart BEAT

Huxoll's Service Won't Stop After High School

Editor's Note: This is the third 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. Kayla Huxoll is the scholar- ship winner from Waitsburg High School.

W

AITSBURG - For

Waitsburg High

School graduate and class of 2012 valedicto- rian, helping others is a fam- ily affair.

Huxoll's grandmother, Te- resa Rothwell, started a char- ity called Caring Hands that provides "Buddy Bags" for foster children. Huxoll said she and her family members collect blankets, clothes and toys and put together bags with these items for foster children.

"The bags help the kids feel at home and secure and that someone is there for them," Huxoll said.

And whenever Grandma Rothwell gets toys, Huxoll helps her clean and bag them for distribution. Huxoll said she has helped Caring Hands for more years than she can even remember and she was brought up knowing how important it is to help others and she enjoys doing so.

"It's a good experience," Huxoll said. "(And as students) the community does so much for us. It feels really good to give back and say 'we appreciate everything you do for us.'"

And when Huxoll made the choice of what she want- ed to do for a living - it came naturally. She wants to be an emergency nurse to help peo- ple when they need it most.

She is already working on tackling her prerequisites at Walla Walla Commu- nity College and plans to go through the school's nursing program to become a regis- tered nurse. And she'll have a great role model who can help her through her journey - her 26-year-old sister Jes- sica Kiefel who is already a nurse.

"I look up to her and she seems to enjoy her job," Hux- oll said. "And it just sounds fun. "

Huxoll's senior project required for graduation was on emergency room nursing and for her service compo- nent she helped organize a blood drive at the high school where 40 people donated blood. She set up the dona- tion site and helped organize the helpers that day and she said she was happy many people came to donate.

Blood donation is key to her career because when patients come into the emer- gency room they often need blood, Huxoll said.

In addition to Caring Hands and the blood drive, Huxoll has also volunteered her time at community food drives, Relay For Life, Tour of Walla Walla Bike Race, Waitsburg Resource Center and a youth volleyball camp.

She graduated at the top of her class with a 3.98 GPA and said math and science classes are her most favorite. And although those two subjects come very easy to her, Hux- oll said she had to do a lot of reading and work to maintain her outstanding grades. But, she said she just kept her nose to the grindstone.

"I didn't find it too hard to get in the swing of things," she said.

And Walla Walla Com- munity College was an easy choice for this smart young woman because she could stay close to home. She said her parents are pretty happy to keep her close for a couple more years.

She is already attending classes getting some of her nursing prerequisites out of the way, driving four days a week to school in Walla Wal- la. She'll attend through Aug. 2 and then have a little bit of a break for summer before class starts again in the fall.

"I've always been in school," Huxoll said. "Why not just continue?"

Huxoll said she doesn't mind school, except the early morning classes are a little more difficult than the after- noon classes.

After three years at Walla Walla Community College, Huxoll plans to keep her nursing skills in the area by working at a Walla Walla or Tri Cities hospital.