Battle Ground and Brush Prairie teens help Rep. Pike in Washington House of Representatives
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 11, 2013
CONTACT: John Sattgast, Broadcast Coordinator – (360) 786-7761
Battle Ground and Brush Prairie teens help Rep. Pike in Washington State House of Representatives
Rep. Liz Pike, R-Camas, had the unique opportunity to sponsor three local students as legislative pages during the week of March 3 – 7 in Olympia. Astrid J.D. DuBois, Chiara “Sequoia” Pullella Barca, both of Battle Ground, and Mariah T. Curtiss of Brush Prairie all served together during their week as pages in the Washington State House of Representatives.
“Occasionally, one or two pages from the local district may serve during a week while the Legislature is in session. This time, we had three, which was a treat,” said Pike, R-Camas. “I found these young girls to be delightful, extremely intelligent and very helpful to our legislative process.”
Astrid and Sequoia are both 16-year-old students at Vancouver iTech Preparatory School. They said participation as legislative pages has been “a great learning experience” for them.
“I really liked watching from the floor all the bills being passed and all the action. It was really cool being here,” said Astrid.
“I was really interested by how personable all the representatives are on the House floor. We were able to interact with them. They asked us trivia about how the legislative system worked and they were very fun to interact with, while at the same time being very professional about their jobs,” added Sequoia. “We were away from school, but we got a lot of time in the page room that we could get caught up with our studies. So that was really helpful for us.”
Mariah is a 15-year-old student at River Homelink School in Battle Ground.
“I thought it was really interesting just watching the whole process, going to committee hearings and seeing bills passed from the floor,” noted Mariah. “It’s really cool to see all the communication that goes on between representatives, lobbyists and others.”
Mariah is a leader in her local youth group organization. She is also the sophomore president at her school. Her parents are Neal and Julie Curtiss from Brush Prairie.
Sequoia enjoys playing soccer and piano. She also loves rock climbing and is involved in several leadership clubs.
“Public service is something that has always interested me. I really love interacting with people,” said Sequoia. “This experience has shown me the political side of it and the personal interaction – how important it is to have that one-on-one communication level.”
Sequoia is the daughter of Ron Barca and Nettie Pullella Barca of Battle Ground.
Astrid enjoys singing, dancing, acting, drawing and reading. She is the daughter of Peter DuBois and Ingrid Dankmeyer, both of Battle Ground.
Pike interviewed the three pages on her Legislative Update video program. Watch the video here: http://tinyurl.com/PikePages.
Each year, students from around the state apply to participate in the legislative page program. Students spend a week attending page school, learning the inner workings of state government and assisting legislators on the House floor. Pages earn $35 per day while serving in the program.
To become a page, applicants must have a legislative sponsor, be between the ages of 14 and 16, and obtain written permission from their parents and school. For more information about the legislative page program, visit: http://www.leg.wa.gov/House/Pages/HousePageProgram.aspx.
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PHOTO: Rep. Liz Pike with legislative pages. From left: Astrid DuBois, Rep. Liz Pike, Mariah Curtiss, and Sequoia Pullella Barca. Photo credit: Washington House of Representatives.
For more information about Rep. Pike, visit: houserepublicans.wa.gov/pike.
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Rep. Pike’s media: 
Washington State House Republican Communications
houserepublicans.wa.gov
455 John L. O’Brien Building
P.O. Box 40600
Olympia, WA 98504-0600 
