Waitsburg Senior Portraits

Blake Benevides

Blake Benevides is the son of Valerie and Shawn and has siblings Quinn and Claudia, both WHS alumni.

Karen Huwe

Ben Benevides

Benevides came to Waitsburg School as an eighth grader and attends WHS full-time. He has been a member of FFA for four years and was on the homecoming court his freshman year.

As a basketball standout in his junior and senior years, Benevides received the Most Improved Award and All-League Honorable Mention his junior year and made the All-League First Team and was voted Most Valuable Player and Mr. Hustle his senior year.  Benevides played AAU basketball in the summer following his junior year, and he joined golf in his senior year and earned a spot in the State Golf Tournament.

Benevides has volunteered at school concessions, helped set up fences at the pig barn, assisted at the Lions Club rib and salmon feeds, assisted at the Karen's ATV Ride registration, and has raked leaves for the elderly.

His favorite memory was going to Ilwaco and playing basketball with the guys at summer basketball camp.

This summer, Benevides hopes to get a job with Vestas Wind Systems.

Sara Wilson

Sara Wilson is the daughter of Kenny and Cathleen. She has attended Waitsburg Schools since preschool. In her senior year, after attending classes at WHS, Wilson took general classes at Walla Walla Community College.

Karen Huwe

Sara Wilson

Wilson joined FFA as an eighth-grader and is currently the secretary. She has participated in FFA competitions during her junior year, and she shown chickens and goats at the local county fairs.

She was the FFA class treasurer her freshman, sophomore, and junior years, also serving as class vice president.

An honor student, Wilson is a member of the National Honor Society, and she was named Student of the Month in November of her senior year.

In addition, her awards include 1st place in Poultry Production-Entrepreneurship/Placement during her senior year, which she received at the State convention in May.

Wilson has volunteered at school concessions, at the NHS blood drive, as security at the Waitsburg Historical Society's Wilson House, during flood relief sandbagging, and as a Girl Scouts program aide, chaperoning at the Plaza Theater and at camps.

A favorite memory of Wilson's is the trip to Omak as an FFA Rangeland team member, where she saw sights and had a lot of fun.

After graduation, Wilson will continue with her chicken business, Bowhay's Tiny Raptors, where she raises show-quality chicks. She has been accepted to the University of Idaho in Moscow to study animal science. Her studies will aid Wilson on the production side of Bowhay's Tiny Raptors, and goat milk and meat production.