Kerri Quick, the coordinator of St. Luke’s Miners Adopt a School program, addressed the Panther Valley School Board at Wednesday’s meeting, and introduced two new people.

“I’m happy to say that we’ve now expanded, we are in all the schools now,” Quick said. “With me is Nicole Pollinger, who is working in the elementary school, and Christina Bravo, working at the junior and senior high school.”

“We’re going to continue to work to help the students to connect them and their families to any kind of health care services, mental health services, social determinants of health, which includes housing and financial needs. We just came here from working with the food pantry started in the district; we’ll continue with the medical van and the dental van.”

Another issue they will be helping with is focusing on families that have attendance issues to try to reengage them back into the school district and work with them and any kind of barriers that might be in the way.

School Superintendent Dave McAndrew thanked them and St. Luke’s.

“We at Panther Valley know we need outside resources. The partnerships we developed, especially with St. Luke’s, have been instrumental in helping our children. Your role is really unlimited; from serving food to helping with mental health crises, student engagement, the list can go on and on. We couldn’t do this, and our students couldn’t be as successful, without your help.”

“I’m so happy that we got some grant funds to bring on the additional people,” Quick added, “because, the more you do, the more that needs to be done. There are a lot of needs in this area. We had 141 families come through the food pantry today, and that’s about average. We appreciate your support with that, letting us use your buildings, storage and helping us get some equipment. It’s really a group effort.”