Prairie grad helps orphaned siblings

Battle Ground — A recent Prairie High School graduate helped build a house in Mexico during spring break so three orphaned siblings could have a home. Jesse Zalk, who graduated from Prairie High in 2012 and now attends Central Washington University, went to Baja California in late March with a professor and 10 other students and recent college graduates for the volunteer trip. They not only provided free labor, but pitched in to pay for the nearly $7,000 house. The home will go to three teenage siblings — ages 19, 17 and 16 — who lost their dad in a house fire and their mother to cancer last year. Zalk’s professor, James Avey, has led similar trips in the past and sees them as learning opportunities, he said in a press release. Zalk’s parents Todd and Teri Zalk live in Battle Ground.