PALs Picnic
October 27, 2017
Rivalries between schools were pushed aside on Oct. 26 at Milburn Park when PALs from Leander ISD came together and played games at the PALs Picnic.
Every year for the past three years, about 500 PALs from each school in the district attend the picnic. The picnic is an opportunity for PALs to meet and listen to a guest speaker. This year the speaker was Lindsey Leaverton who works in finance, but is an activist. Her passion is pushing high schoolers, especially black and hispanic men, to take advanced math. Statistics show that only 1 in 5 people graduate college, and 1 in 14 boys of black or hispanic ethnicity, when they stop taking math at Algebra II. Senior Kaitlyn Taylor was at the picnic for the first time and listened to the talk.
“Just all the encouragement she was giving us to use our own voices in this world and be an impact and spread that love and kindness around was amazing,” Taylor said.
Leaverton was not the only part that PALs enjoyed at the picnic. Senior Sabrina Enriquez is a member of PALs two and attended the picnic last year as well.
“I like the PALs picnic because it’s just really awesome that we all get together and that we all get to share ideas and meet people from other schools and just be in a positive environment all together,” Enriquez said.