To Arminda Eyre, a self-described “band geek,” making music was one of life’s greatest joys.
So was her belief in God.
“Twenty-four, seven,” said Adriana Vargas, 16, a classmate at Mariner High School in south Everett. “Every day she would talk about God. God and band, band and God.”
| A memorial service for Mariner High School student Arminda Eyre will be at 1 p.m. Saturday at Shoreline Covenant Church, 1330 N. 185th St. in Shoreline. |
Mariner students mourned the death of the often-smiling 15-year-old freshman Wednesday, a day after learning she had died of unknown causes.
Arminda was absent from school Monday, staying home with flulike symptoms.
Snohomish County Fire District 1 firefighters responded to her home after receiving a call for help at 9:13 p.m. Monday, spokeswoman Leslie Hynes said. They took her to Providence Everett Medical Center’s Colby Campus, where she died later that night.
School officials stressed that despite the unknown cause of death, there was no health risk to other students.
“We really don’t know whether the flulike symptoms she reported on Monday actually had anything to do with her death,” principal Brent Kline said.
“At this point, we have no reason to be concerned about any communicable disease at Mariner High School,” said Dr. M. Ward Hinds, health officer for the Snohomish Health District.
Even at the large campus with more than 2,000 students, the principal knew the redheaded freshman.
“She just had a wonderful attitude about life and what she wanted to do in life,” Kline said.
Arminda’s band instructor, Christopher Angelos, said she showed leadership qualities even as a ninth-grader. She was in a symphony class, the marching band in the fall and a winter percussion group that traveled by train to Modesto, Calif., to perform earlier this month. She played alto saxophone in class, but also played the xylophone and piano.
“Arminda always had an opinion about how the music should go, and she always wanted to help make it better,” Angelos said.
“She was a person of great joy and sincerity of faith,” said Mike Guerrero, senior pastor at Shoreline Covenant Church. Arminda and her older sister, Megan, attended confirmation classes there.
Arminda looked up to Megan, a Mariner junior, and enjoyed being in band with her, said Vargas, a classmate in drama.
“She would talk about her sister all the time,” Vargas said.
Vargas remembers Arminda’s beautiful singing voice and how much her classmate cherished a small role as a reporter in a class play.
Vargas also was struck by how many different groups of students were affected by her death, which brought together cheerleaders, skateboarders, football players and band members at a school memorial Tuesday.
In public speaking exercises in drama, Arminda always managed to turn her assignments into something about music. “Being in the high school band, that was something she wanted to do her whole life,” Vargas said.
Herald reporter Katherine Schiffner contributed to this story.
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