Community Spotlight
Darayne Achin
Darayne Achin and her brother were left by their mother at the Catholic Church in Salt River, but Darayne is not bitter, “She left us there because she and my dad broke up and she knew she could not care for us and that the church would make sure we were cared for.” Their paternal grandmother took them in. From her, Darayne learned to cook and to clean. “We had an adobe sandwich house with a dirt floor and every day we would sprinkle it with and sweep it,” recalled Darayne. “She also taught me to cook over an open fire. Cooking was an allday thing—you’d do one meal and clean up, and it was time to do another.” Unfortunately when she was six, Darayne’s grandmother passed away. Darayne and her brother were shuffled among other family members until their mother and father got back together when she eight. Their family grew to include six more siblings. By the time she was in high school,
Darayne’s uncle and father had built a farming business. Her father worked 4am to midnight and her mother worked as a housekeeper, so it fell to Darayne and her brother to care for the family. They were responsible for making meals, cleaning the house and helping their younger brothers and sisters with homework and getting ready for bed and school. Darayne was so tired, she literally slept through her senior year. To this day, she is grateful to her guidance counselor, Mr. Smith, who worked with all of her teachers so she could take oral tests and graduate. He also worked to get her into an all-Indian Upward Bound summer program. Darayne was one of only 80 from around the state to attend the program at ASU designed to give them a taste of college life and to encourage them to continue their education. “I didn’t really understand at the time, SRPMIC SENIOR SERVICES
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