This year’s “Short Hair Because We Care” will hold a hair donation event for the Children With Hair Loss organization will be held Saturday, November 16 at Penn High School’s Studio Theater.

Anyone in the community can donate their hair, but the minimum is 8 inches of hair. Hair that is colored and permed is accepted. Local professional hair stylists will be donating their time to cut volunteers hair for free. Because this is for hair donation, the service provided is just a simple cut, no style.

This event was started in 2019-2020 school year by a group of 7th grade Grissom Middle School students. 

“It started as something that students could give, that wouldn’t be money or something they wouldn’t have control over being young students, but everyone can donate their hair, so that’s why we started it: to give everyone an opportunity to serve even if they don’t have other resources,” Ella Smoker Class of 2024. Click to see the WNDU-TV’s story.

Last year, 33 people donated a total of 334 inches (click to see photos)! Donate this year and help beat last year’s totals!

If you’re interested in donating, click here to sign up using the Google form.

Email shbwcphs@gmail.com with questions, and follow the group on Instagram at @shbwc_phs. 

If you can’t make it to the event or don’t have enough hair to donate, you can still help out by donating directly to Children With Hair Loss.

Children With Hair Loss is a nonprofit organization that provides hair replacements at no cost to children or young adults facing hair loss at no cost. Whatever the cause, hair loss can have effects that go deeper than cosmetics. Providing this hair is how this organization gives back to the community. You can help us give back to your community and the children facing hair loss by donating your hair or simply spreading the word about the event to everyone! 

Elm Road Elementary School’s first grade students recently combined creativity with technology, bringing a “zoo” of their own to life using Sphero Robots. Inspired by the Potawatomi Zoo, the students designed and created a zoo map featuring habitats for their favorite animals.

The interactive experience didn’t stop there—the first graders then programmed Sphero Robots to navigate through the zoo, maneuvering around habitats, and stopping at each animal exhibit they designed.

This project allowed students to practice essential skills in problem-solving and collaboration, as they programmed their robots to follow paths and even “visit” the animals. Watching their programming in action as the robots moved across the zoo map gave students an exciting hands-on look into the world of robotics and coding!

Our 4th grade math teachers got together and came up with a clever way to get kids excited about learning math, and threw in a little Halloween spine tingler for some added fun.

Mrs. Cook, Freeman, and Hertel not only came up with the math mystery, staged the “crime scene,” and called Officer Wilkey to come in and help the students solve the crime.

Because students are currently studying place values, they had to figure out which member of the “Petrifying Place Value Gang” created the big mess in the classroom. Students worked in detective teams to solve math problems to narrow down the suspects. Then they worked together as a whole class to narrow it down to one suspect to be arrested by Officer Wilkey.

The fun activity taught students place value and notation practice, helping students better understand number composition, value assignment by place, and converting between expanded and standard forms.

On Sunday, September 8, the Michiana community joined Penn and P-H-M in giving Olympic Gold Medalist Sarah Hildebrandt a Heroine’s Welcome!

Before Sarah’s “Welcome Home” kicked off, the local media got some one-on-one time with Sarah, her parents, and Penn Head Wrestling Coach Brad Harper during a news conference. Coach Harper was Sarah’s wrestling coach when she was at Penn; he became her personal coach and coached her at the Tokyo Olympics wear she won Bronze. Coach Harper planned this special homecoming for Sarah. Click to see the full photo gallery below.

The parade left from Penn High School and went down McKinley approximately two miles and ended at Zolman’s Tire.

Thank you to all the parade participants who volunteered their time on a Sunday afternoon: Mishawaka and Penn Twp. Fire Departments, St. Joseph County Police, the Marching Kingsmen, Penn Girls and Boys Wrestling Teams, Penn Cheerleaders, Penn Youth Wrestling Club, Rocket Football cheerleaders, and Dr. and Mrs. Thacker. Along with Sarah with her mom Nancy and dad Chris, Sarah’s extended family were also in the parade. Sarah and her parents were in a golden yellow convertible Mustang driven by St. Joseph County Sheriff Bill Redman. Thank you to Zolman’s Tire for supplying some trucks.

After the parade was over, hundreds gathered at Urban Swirl in Granger for an Olympic Celebration emceed by Mark McGill. A representative from Mishawaka Mayor Dave Wood’s office read a proclamation declaring September 8th as Sarah Hildebrandt Day! U.S. Congressman Rudy Yakym read the historical entry on Sarah’s Olympic achievement that he will be submitting to the official U.S. Congressional Record.

Sarah was able to see and catch up with the coach who gave her first break, then Discovery Middle School Wrestling Coach Raoul Donati.

Sarah threw out free T-shirts featuring her smiley face tattoo on the front and her viral X tweet on the back.

Grateful for all the love and support that her hometown gave her, Sarah graciously took hundreds of pictures with all of her adoring fans. She also signed hundreds of autographs on posters, shirts, singlets, wrestling shoes and even foreheads! 

Check it all out in the photo gallery below.

Penn High School’s “Golden Girl” is coming home! On Sunday, September 8th the community will have a celebratory parade for the Female Wrestler Olympic Gold Medalist.

The parade starts at 3:00 at the intersection of Bittersweet and McKinley Highway. The parade will proceed West down McKinley Highway and will end at Zolman’s Tire (2014 E McKinley Ave., Mishawaka).

There will be an Olympic Celebration 4:30 p.m. at Urban Swirl (Heritage Square, Granger). Congressman Rudy Yakym will present Sarah with a special gift; and Mishawaka Mayor Dave Wood’s office will present a proclamation. Mark McGill will emcee the event.

There will be free posters, available on a first come, first serve basis. T-shirts will also be available for sale.

Sarah Hildebrandt earned a Gold Medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics in Women’s Wrestling (50kg). Hildebrandt was one of two American women to win a Gold Medal in Wrestling at the 2024 Olympics. She is also just the fourth woman to win Gold in Team USA Wrestling history.

Hildebrandt earned a Bronze Medal at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. She is also a two-time national collegiate champion. A 2011 graduate of Penn High School, Hildebrandt became the first female to qualify for the Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) Wrestling Semi-State competition and led Penn High School to the IHSAA Team Championship. Her personal coach is Penn Boys Wrestling Head Coach Brad Harper.

We are so excited to have everyone back at school, please view the photo gallery below to see some “First Day of School Smiles!” 

Members of Penn High School’s Class of 2024 that went to Elm Road came back to visit their old “roost” on the last day of school, Friday, May 31st. They got to not only see and catch up with their former teachers, but they also interacted with current students during Field Day.

At one of the inside classroom stations students were learning about the Olympics since this year’s Summer Olympics will take place in July in Paris. As it so happens, former Eagle and Penn senior Lily Christianson will be participating in the Olympic Trials for swimming in Indianapolis. Lily is a 6-time State Champion swimmer. Lily stopped by and said hello to the students and took a picture with them.

See the rest of the photo gallery below.

We held our Field Day the last day of school, Friday, May 31, 2024. The weather was perfect and there’s no better place to have a field day then the grounds of Elm Road. There’s plenty of space for tug-of-war and bouncies.

Principal Madelyn Beers joined in on the fun with a group of 2nd graders.

Thank you to all our parent volunteers and staff for making this a great last day of school for our Elm Road Eagles!

Superintendent Dr. Jerry Thacker handed out the second round of district Spring 2024 Impact Awards on Thursday, May 23rd. The awards were given to teachers who had the most significant individual student growth with DIBLES, ILEARN, and SAT assessments for Spring 2024.

Dr. Thacker, along with Assistant Superintendent Dr. Heather Short, Director of Professional Development and Student Learning Dr. Lavon Dean-Null, and Director of Literacy and Title I Ryan Towner, visited three schools to surprise three teachers letting them know that they were the latest winners.

Principal Madelyn Beers helped surprise 2^nd grade teacher Heidi Tornquist. Her students had the highest DIBELS composite growth among all second graders in the district! Mrs. Tornquist praised her students for their hard work and success, as well as thanking her colleagues for the team-effort.

As this school year comes to a close we want to thank all our teachers and students for their commitment to academic excellence this school year. The hard work really paid off!

Thank you to the P-H-M Education Foundation for covering the cost of the awards for purchasing the beautiful crystal awards given to the teacher award recipients.