Boys & Girls Club Youth of the Year

Johanna Gamboa, a senior at Mount Vernon High School, and nearly a lifetime member of the Mount Vernon Clubhouse of Boys & Girls Clubs of Skagit County was announced as the 2022 Washington State Youth of the Year at a gala dinner in Seattle, WA Thursday night. Being selected as a local Club Youth of the Year is the highest honor a member can reach and paves a way for increased development and opportunities, including significant scholarship funding. Local Club honorees then participate at their organization level, with one being selected to go to the State program.

As the 2022 Washington State Youth of the Year, Johanna has earned $2,500 in scholarship funds and was also selected as the Qualstar Credit Union Collaborative Spirit Award recipient and another $1,000 towards her education. She will continue her journey and represent Washington State in Los Angeles, CA in May, where she will compete alongside her peers from Alaska, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, California, Nevada, Arizona, Hawaii, and Guam for the title of Pacific Region Youth of the Year.

Since 1947, Youth of the Year has created amazing leaders in communities all over the country, and indeed the world, through the participation of teens on military bases overseas. Washington State has had three national winners. One became an orthopedic surgeon and helped found the Boys & Girls Clubs of Thurston County. Another served for many years as Prosecuting Attorney for Snohomish County. The third and most recent national winner (1998) is a pediatric dentist for the Yakima Valley Farmworkers Clinic. In 2015, Justice Lively became the first State honoree for Boys & Girls Clubs of Skagit County in history.