School spirit is very important to the Palmer community, and our
mascot definitely helps boost school spirit. Palmer’s mascot is a bald eagle
called Eagle Beak. Eagle Beak can be seen at games and other events
related to Palmer High School to help with school spirit.
Palmer’s library staff, specifically librarian Brenda Phillis, have begun
streaming a pair of eagles and their unhatched eggs on the library’s
previously unused TV to help even more with school spirit.
Ms. Phillis was scrolling through her YouTube feed one day when she
stumbled upon a live video of two parent eagles with their eggs, and decided
it was an experience the students would benefit from watching as well.
Palmer students and staff reportedly “love it” and come in to watch the
eagles all the time, and students have been “asking for the website so they
could go view it as well”.
Palmer’s library is a pretty high traffic area, and according to Ms.
Phillis, students will watch the feed and “comment on what’s going on for the
day.”
The idea to watch the live feed of the eagle parents first came up in
school year 2022-2023. Unfortunately, the first pair Palmer staff chose to
watch were unsuccessful with their clutch and staff had to choose a new pair
to watch about halfway through the year. However, this year’s clutch has
been successful so far!
While many other high schools have animal mascots as well, such as
the Coronado Cougars or the Manitou Mustangs, none of them have done
anything similar to this project as far as any of the Palmer staff know.
However, this is not a usual adoption program. There are many
adoption programs where people can pay a fee to “adopt” an animal, but not
many of them show live feeds of that animal’s day to day life. This project
fits the Palmer community much better because not only does it allow people
to watch the animals in real time every day, but students are also able to
look up the website in their free time if they are interested.
While the Palmer library has relatively high traffic, there are still many
students who do not use the library as often as others and consequently do
not know about the eagle feed. Students are encouraged to go check it out
because not only is it educational, but it also gives students and staff a
feeling of pride towards Palmer and puts a smile on their faces.