Fluffy alpacas, baby goats, and tiny rabbits took the lunch blocks by storm on August 22 as students excitedly waited in line to meet and feed the cute animals. This experience was sponsored by the Leadership program at South Lakes and has become a tradition for the first week of school. 

The animals were positioned in the grassy area in the back parking lot, near the stadium. The small bunnies were placed underneath a tent near one of the stadium gates. Leadership students were in charge of making sure a line was made, which must have been quite the ordeal as students immediately rushed over to get a glimpse and meet the animals. 

The petting zoo is part of the South Lakes Leadership program’s “Welcome Week.” 

“I would say there was a lot of hard work put into it, and a lot of time scheduling, but it wasn’t too stressful,” Sophomore Katie Bagley explained. 

Bagley is currently in her first year of Leadership, and experienced the petting zoo firsthand last year, as a freshman. 

“This year, I could see how much work it took and all the planning that went into it,” Bagley said.

Sophomore Erica Ocansey was also part of the leadership team who organized the petting zoo experience for students. 

“We were told to put the students who wanted to see the animals in a line, which was very chaotic,” Ocansey said. 

Leadership executive Senior Sam Goodiel explained the process of securing the animals for  the petting zoo.

“We have to reach out to the petting zoo company and it’s pretty simple, we basically just reach out and let them know how many animals we want, the day and time, and then they bring them in and tie them down,” Goodiel said. 

Goodiel believes that by utilizing the petting zoo, we gain an exciting way to get into the full swing of the first week, and the beginning of a new school year.

“My favorite part is definitely seeing the faces, or the pictures people take,” Goodiel continues. 

Goodiel described how one of the former leadership executives had an idea to bring a petting zoo to the school during welcome week. It is an exciting way to start off the school year. 

“Hopefully the petting zoo will become an annual thing,” Goodiel said.