Adahir Ayon
Adahir Ayon will be filling a Patagonia Regional Times board position as a student-enrichment opportunity that looks to give area youth insight into nonprofits.
“I am very grateful for this chance,” Ayon said. “I am looking forward to learning new things and getting to know people that I might not have had the opportunity to know” as a student. For the board, he will provide insight and perspective on issues facing area youth.
A native of Sonoita, Ayon, 17, is a junior at Patagonia High School. He lives with grandparents Lucilla and Perry Ambrose in Sonoita along with triplet siblings Emilo, Mariano and Dayami, all eighth graders.
Ayon’s family has deep roots in the community, many family members having attended Patagonia schools.
He works as a volunteer at the Bowman-Stradling History Center in Sonoita and serves as manager of the Patagonia High School volleyball and basketball teams. He has been editor of the school yearbook for two years and worked as a lifeguard at Patagonia Regional Aquatics Center.
Ayon aspires to be an English teacher or police officer. And to that end, he plans on attending Pima Community College and the University of Arizona.
Samantha Morriss Collins
Family. Community. Those were the pulls that brought Samantha Morriss Collins back to Patagonia. To say she is happy to have returned would be an understatement. The word “ecstatic” comes to mind.
“I love walking home and being able to talk and wave to people,” Morriss Collins said. Speech-language pathologist and pre-kinder coordinator at Patagonia schools, she gets to see Mom (Cynthia) and Dad (Ron) anytime. That she and husband Michael were able to be present for grandfather William “Memo” Y. Matus’s final days only fueled her belief on the importance of family.
A new board member of the Patagonia Regional Times, Morriss Collins started undergraduate work at the University of Arizona intending to be a photojournalist, later switching to anthropology, in which she got a bachelor of arts. She also received a bachelor’s and master’s in speech-language pathology. And although she pursued the latter discipline as a professional, she still has newsprint ink in her veins.
“I have a passion for journalism,” Morriss Collins said. That she now serves on the PRT board is both a means of feeding that interest and giving back to the community. She appreciates how the local periodical ties people together, giving them voice and allowing for the sharing of information and ideas across a spectrum of topics.