As the Sequim Boys & Girls Club was about to begin its annual Halloween Bash, staff and club members turned their attention to the game room’s big screen.
The club’s hometown hero, Pearle Peterson, was about to once again take to the national stage.
The 19-year-old Sequim club alumna sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” on Saturday, Oct. 26, in Los Angeles, before game two of Major League Baseball’s World Series between the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers.
See her performance here.
It was Peterson’s second time singing the national anthem before millions of people as she was asked to represent the Boys & Girls Clubs of America again; she also sang prior to game two of the 2023 World Series in Arlington, Texas.
Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash Mary Budke, executive director of the Boys Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula, and fellow supporters cheer for Pearle Peterson on Oct. 26 from inside the Sequim club as Peterson sings the national anthem at game two of the World Series.
Fourteen-year-old Emma Anderson watched the national anthem while wearing Peterson’s Youth of the Year sweatshirt, and a homemade T-shirt from Peterson’s appearance at last year’s World Series.
“She’s been a big part of my life, a role model,” Anderson said.
“To see her go from singing in the auction in the gym to the World Series is awesome. And to see her accomplish her goals is so cool.”
Sequim club program director Heather Baker said she’s known Peterson through the club for four years and has gone with her to several events.
“It feels like a part of us is there,” Baker said after watching Peterson.
“It’s like one of our own kids there, and that’s what all the club kids are — our kids.”
Singing the national anthem for millions of people was a dream realized for Peterson at last year’s World Series. But she said doing it again seemed unreal.
“Getting the news the first time was shocking,” Peterson said over the phone from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, a few days before the latest World Series performance.
“Nothing can prepare you for hearing it twice.”
Peterson is a three-time Olympic Region Youth of the Year for the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula, and has been either attending or working at the Carroll C. Kendall Unit in Sequim for 11-plus years.
She has said the club provided her somewhere to go after school, dependable meals, homework, friends and a place to “grow up in an environment where I could be authentic.”
The club offered Peterson her first job, and she worked there this past summer at morning camps. She even plans to work there on her winter and summer breaks from college.
For the last two years, she’s toured the country performing for the Boys & Girls Club, NASCAR races and several local events.
Mary Budke, executive director of the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula, said leaders with the national organization reached out about Peterson coming back for the World Series because MLB asked.
“We’re not just super proud of her, we tell kids they can be the next Pearle,” Budke said.
“She has forged a new path. Pearle didn’t tell them. She showed them and that’s remarkable.”
On Instagram, Peterson shared a video of Saturday’s performance and wrote, “There’s something to be said about truly putting your nose to the grindstone. True success comes from the experience you get, not the result.
“I’m thanking God for putting me here tonight in this moment. The door to opportunity rarely opens twice, but being raised as a club kid and the daughter of the most industrious and altruistic leaders, breaking down barriers is in my blood.
“I’m proud of where I stand today, and even prouder of the place I came from.”
She continued by thanking family, friends and more.
Budke said Peterson did amazing.
“She had a high bar that she flew over. She’s worked so hard,” she said.
Budke said she had a similar reaction after Peterson’s performance on Saturday as she did at a viewing party in 2023.
“I’m not a crier, but she made me cry, again,” Budke said.
Budke previously said Peterson has remained grounded through her experiences as she’s appeared on a big stage one day and then come back to the club the next.
“She’s one of the hardest working young ladies I ever met,” she said.
“She personifies what the Boys & Girls Clubs’ values and goals are. I can tell you the mission of the clubs, but Pearle lives it.”
Preparation
Peterson left Sequim for college in August to pursue lyric theater at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
“It’s so wonderful; this program is a hidden gem,” she said.
And while the major is a full time job, “it doesn’t feel like it because I love it so much,” she said.
She’s been learning a lot, including better self care, too.
“I used to think I sang everyday, all day, but I had no idea what that meant,” Peterson said.
Leading to her second opportunity at the World Series, Peterson said she has more time to enjoy the process, and she’s been taking care of herself while working hard on the anthem.
Prior to being chosen to sing at the World Series last year, Peterson was chosen as National Youth Talent Performer and performed across the country in 2023. Boys & Girls Clubs of America executives heard her and recommended she sing at the World Series as a representative for the national organization.
She has credited the Boys & Girls Club for helping her, and feels her hard work led to cool opportunities.
“I’m so happy to be that example to other kids from small towns who want to get into the music industry,” she said in 2023. “I’m fulfilling what my younger self always wanted to do.”
Hometown, college life
Going from small town life to college life has been interesting, she said, particularly “not running into people I know everyday.”
The hardest part of college is not being by her parents Jason and Kelsie and sister Victoria, Peterson said, but she’s excited the trio traveled to be with her for the performance.
Sequim club director Tessa Jackson said she’s incredibly proud of Peterson.
“It’s been an honor to watch her become the person she’s become,” she said.
Budke said the community has helped Peterson with college through various forms of support.
“They opened their arms to this girl,” she said.
“They see her and congratulate her driving through for coffee, and service groups ask us to bring Pearle so they can congratulate her.”
Peterson said thanks to many local scholarships and from the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, her tuition is covered for this school year.
For more about the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula, visit bgc-op.org.
Photo by Mary DeCicco/MLB Photos via Getty Images/ Pearle Peterson with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America readies to sing the national anthem prior to game two of the 2024 World Series at Dodger Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 26 in Los Angeles. Peterson is from Sequim and attended the Sequim Boys & Girls Club and most recently worked there this summer. This was the second time she sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the World Series after singing at the event in 2023 in Arlington, Texas.
Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash/ Staff, board members, and club members with the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula watch from the Sequim club Pearle Peterson, a former club member and staffer, sing the national anthem at the World Series in Los Angeles on Oct. 26.
