Snohomish High duo volunteer more than 2,000 hours to service

Published 1:30 am Friday, July 29, 2016

SNOHOMISH — Jessamine Anderson switched to Snohomish schools the summer before she started fifth grade.

On that first day at Emerson Elementary, a teacher asked another girl, Christina Deierling, to be Anderson’s recess buddy. They’ve been best friends ever since.

By middle school, they figured out they wanted to be involved in student leadership and volunteering. They still run into teachers from that time who remember them bringing stick-ponies to Spirit Day.

“Everyone was so scared of dressing up in middle school, but we didn’t care,” Deierling said.

Now young women, they send each other leadership books and links to TED talks.

“I would not do that with my other friends,” Deierling said. “They would be like ‘Are you crazy? Philosophical readings?’ ”

During senior year at Snohomish High School, Anderson was student body treasurer and Deierling was president. Together, they totaled more than 2,000 hours of volunteering in high school. Both earned varsity letters that way, though they also played sports and were in the badminton club. Volunteering ventures have included fundraisers for cancer research, a mission trip to Guatemala, packing meals for food banks local and afar, and helping plan and serve a community dinner for senior citizens.

They also started the “Humans of Snohomish” Facebook page, where they interview random people about life in their small town. They recently volunteered to talk about the project with a summer arts and science class of elementary-school students.

A change is coming to their lives.

Deierling, 17, plans to study business this fall at Chapman University in Southern California. Anderson, 18, plans to major in psychology and public health at the University of Washington. It’ll be the longest time they’ve been apart since they’ve met. Their coping plan, according to Anderson, is “weekly Skype calls and denial.”

They made a summer bucket list, which includes biking the Centennial Trail and catching a sunrise from Mount Pilchuck.

For now, Deierling is working at a frozen yogurt shop and Anderson at a Bellevue office that makes ophthalmic instruments. Both want to move back home someday after college and maybe start a leadership consulting business together.

As summer speeds by, they talk about the leadership camps they’ve attended and the lessons they’ve been taught about living meaningfully. They’ve decided they need to be lifelong helpers, and put that first, before money, status or ego, Anderson said.

The plan is “keeping each other accountable for that, because that’s what we’ve always wanted,” Deierling said.

Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com.