When a classmate needed help to achieve the SAT score needed to attend her dream college, Tylea “Ty” Alpaugh stepped in.

The senior at Western Wayne studied with her tennis teammate for eight months, resulting in her peer gaining acceptance into the college.

Ty continues to volunteer as an SAT tutor, works as the head artist at a charity that has sent more than 8,000 soccer balls to Haitian orphans and volunteers for her local library’s summer reading programs.

The daughter of Amy and Cole Alpaugh, she is the first National Merit Finalist in the high school’s history, an accomplishment she is most proud of. Ty also takes a rigorous amount of advanced placement courses at Western Wayne.

However, it’s her contributions to art and music she’s found most rewarding; Ty played the leading role in the school’s last two musicals.

She is also a member of the marching band, serving as band historian and playing the marimba and tenor drums.

Ty was a foley artist — the person who reproduces every day sounds during performances — during the a Spotlight Players performance. The theater company is based in Wayne County.

A member of the tennis team, Ty lead the team to districts as co-captain.

She most admires bees because they are important pollinators and make delicious honey. She also admires her camp film instructor, who sparked Ty’s interest to start her on a journey into cinematography. Ty enjoys watching movies in the theaters and creating short films in her spare time.

That passion will lead her to Vassar College after graduation, where she plans to double major in drama and film. In 15 years, she sees herself living in New York City and acting on Broadway.

Ty, who collects quotes from people in her daily life, says her philosophy on life can be summed up with a Cat in the Hat quote from “Seussical the Musical:” “…Simply, things could be worse.”

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Western Wayne Administration has recognized junior Abby Gogolski as an outstanding student.  Abby completed an excellent senior project this past winter in which she raised about 3,000 dollars in her effort to provide Wayne County families with a good meal for Christmas.

Western Wayne High School students are required to complete a senior project before graduation.  These projects are many times community-service based.  Abby, who aspires one day to have a career in finance, thought she wanted to put her budgeting and marketing skills to good use to help those in need for her senior project.

She worked closely with her mother to set up her very successful project.  In mid-December, she set up a day for the community to donate food for her efforts at Ray’s Supermarket in Waymart.  She said she raised about 200 dollars at that event and collected about 40 boxes of food.

Abby also set up drop stations for the community to donate at the Waymart Lodge and the Salem Lodge. Along with these efforts to collect donations at local businesses, Abby also created a GoFundMe account to have an online effort to help provide for those in need in Wayne County.

Along with asking for help on the internet, Abby also sent out letters to people in the community both asking for donations and for suggestions of families who would benefit from her project.  In addition, Abby asked local businesses to donate.  In the end, she said she raised about 3,000 dollars in her combined efforts of asking for both monetary donations and donations of food items.  Abby used the money she raised to buy more items to donate to those in need such as turkeys for holiday meals.

Once Abby had everything collected, she went out on a weekend in December and donated the food in baskets she put together to family homes in the community.  She made all of the donations anonymously.

“During the holiday season in the past, I had heard people in the community saying they couldn’t afford certain things,” Abby explained.  “So I thought this would be a beneficial time to do a senior project of this nature to help people who don’t have a lot.”

Abby, an honor roll student, has always enjoyed volunteer work.  She volunteers at a local church in Hamlin in their food pantry every month and is glad she can continue her service beyond her senior project.

When Abby isn’t volunteering her time to help others, she is involved in FBLA, CATS club, Spanish club, and the tennis team.

She wishes to attend Southeastern University in Florida after graduation to pursue a degree in marketing.  She is considering a career as a financial advisor and hopes that as a part of that career she can provide some services for people who are less fortunate to help them get back on their feet.

Western Wayne High School Principal Paul Gregorski is very proud of Abby’s efforts.

“Abby is a role model to others in our school through her efforts to help those in the community,” Gregorski said.  “I look forward to seeing how she continues to make a positive impact on both the Western Wayne community and community-at-large during her senior year.”

Pictured is Western Wayne student Abby Gogolski with both letters she wrote to community members to help get donations for her senior project his past winter and letters of thanks she received after the project.  Abby worked to provide food for those in need this past holiday season.