Dancer chosen for parks project

A Marysville dancer was selected for a Dance Across the USA photo project that highlights the beauty of dance and of the nation’s parks and historical markers. Madison Young, 15, was among a half-dozen dancers selected for a photo shoot at Olympic National Park’s Ruby Beach.

Madison is a freshman at Marysville Pilchuck High School. She dances with Northwest Dance and Acro in Arlington. Her mother saw the dance project on Facebook and applied.

“It was cool to find out I had been selected for the semifinals — about 300 dancers — but it was even better when I got chosen for the project,” Madison said. “I have been dancing off and on since I was 3. … I do hip hop, ballet, jazz, contemporary, acro — pretty much anything but tap.

“I love to perform. There is just nothing like it.”

The photo shoot was the 20th stop on a nationwide tour for the photography project that hit locations in all 50 states plus Washington, D.C. Select photos will be compiled into a book to benefit the national parks and the National Endowment for the Arts. Learn more at www.dance atusa.com.

Madison had been to Olympic National Park before, including nearby Kalaloch, but it was her first time to Ruby Beach.

“The park was beautiful but super cold!” she said.

GOP honors PCOs

The Snohomish County Republican Party Central Committee recently honored Roy de Soto for having served as precinct committee officer in the Calvary precinct since 1964. De Soto, of Snohomish, also serves on the Snohomish Senior Center board, and has previously served with the Mill Creek Lions Club and Mill Creek Library.

The SCRP and the Evergreen Republican Women’s Club also paid tribute to PCO Doug Kerley, who died in an auto crash over the summer. “Doug faithfully attended meetings, wrote letters to the editor, crossed the state with candidate signs and stood boldly for this nation and its military,“ SCRP Chair Billye Brooks-Sebastiani said.

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