The Real Impact of Panther Pals
Written by Karl Houtman, Former Student on Wednesday, October 29, 2014
A big part of growing up is having someone to look out for you. Having role models in your life from the very beginning is a big part of learning who you are in this world. They’re always there for you, they will never judge you as anything other than yourself, and they will make you feel important, both in your life and theirs. Panther Pals, essentially, are those role models.
The SHS Panther Pal program has student volunteers from our halls pair with younger elementary students, as both a learning experience for high school students and a way for kids to see that there are people in this world who care about them and appreciate them outside of their comfort zone.
This year is the third time that freshmen have been allowed to be Panther Pals. This is not a common occurrence.
Tuck Gionet, who teaches government at SHS, said, “the reason we haven’t done it in the past is because of the transportation issue. [Freshman] are more dependent on their parents than sophomores, juniors and seniors. We just decided that there are some great freshmen that we were excluding from the program that would make great Panther Pals.”
Gionet founded the Panther Pals during the 1993-94 school year, and it has become the longest-running program of its kind to date in Snohomish County.
“I’ve wanted to do it ever since I was little,” says Freshman Anne Smith, a Panther Pal this year.
The Panther Pals were paired with their kids on October 20, during a dessert and parent meeting in SHS’s cafeteria. The first activity for the Panther Pals was scheduled for Saturday, October 25, but due to the Marysville-Pilchuck High School shooting, the Halloween haunted house and carnival was canceled.
Dave Martinson, Emerson Elementary School’s representative for the Panther Pals this year, has been with the program for ten years.
“My job is to help communicate to the elementary students what Panther Pals is,” says Martinson.
The next Panther Pal activity is a canned food drive on November 5, and will be held at SHS.
“Every year we collect between twenty-five hundred and three thousand pounds of food for the Canned Food Bank,” Gionet said.
Panther Pals have many different ways of communicating with one another. Panther Pals are encouraged to regularly call their elementary friend, and overall be a friend to them in any way possible.
“It’s so much fun to do something with someone younger and get to know them,” said Smith.
Panther Pal volunteers are matched with a student, between the grades of kindergarten through sixth, from the surrounding elementary schools and are with them from the time of their matching (this year being October 20) until the end of the year. The last event for the Panther Pals this year is a barbeque, which is going to happen sometime in early June.
“There were a couple of similar programs like [Panther Pals] that were in other high schools in the area, and I thought that our students would be great mentors. I thought that the students would give the kids a sense of community. It is the longest lasting high school mentorship left in the county,” said Gionet.
Gionet has been the Panther Pal coordinator for twenty years now. He has always believed the program to be a great way for SHS to make yet another difference in the Snohomish community, while representing our elementary schools as well.
“It’s a great tradition, and I hope it continues,” Gionet said.
