Callie Woodring

Panthers in the park happened this Wednesday on Sept. 10. Panthers in the park has been an ongoing activity in Wenatchee High School for multiple years. Every year students from the high school meet at Walla Walla Park to play games, watch a movie, eat food and hang out.
“We had a very diverse turnout… ethnic-wise and social group-wise,” said ASB culture coordinator, Parker Averi.
The turnout was better than previous years as far as numbers go. Along with more people attending, the group this year was much more diverse according to ASB. They mentioned multiple times how multiple different friend groups showed up and everyone included each other.
At panthers in the park there were many activities for people to join, such as a large game of volleyball, spikeball and cornhole. ASB also made frame cutouts to take pictures with. There were members from the WHS yearbook that were taking pictures of everyone to post throughout the year and to add to the yearbook.
ASB has been working and planning throughout the summer in order to hold events and have a set schedule. The people involved in ASB take multiple hours out of their days to set up for and plan for events. One struggle with planning this year was contacting the PUD so that they were able to turn the power on to show a movie.
“My dad works for the PUD, so if he didn’t have the connections, we would’ve had to wait 30 days and wouldn’t be able to get that power,” said Alexa Cantu, ASB culture coordinator.
If it hadn’t been for Cantu’s connections then the movie wouldn’t have been possible. ASB went to many lengths to put on panthers in the park.
ASB plans to hold another panthers in the park later this school year in May. When asked what they would do differently, the culture coordinators said that they plan to be more prepared and organized. They plan to have more food, drinks and games. Since it will be approaching summer, they plan on incorporating some water games.
The turnout was better overall compared to past years. The night was successful for ASB and exceeded their expectations. The next panthers in the park will be in May. More details are to come.