Students Kylie Seaman and Alli Dietz created the idea in their head, early summer of 2023, to make a student lounge for athletes at Heritage High School. They both immediately agreed on committing to this project. Seaman and Dietz spent over 35 hours over the summer reimagining the space of what was originally a storage room above the main gym. Over several volunteer hours later, the girls thought up a great name for the space. The P.A.C. (Pride Athletic Center). Building the student lounge was not easy the whole time. Seaman and Dietz ran into different obstacles along the way.
“The most challenging part about creating this space is executing all of our ideas. We want this place to have so many aspects, but with the budget it can be challenging to get all of the elements we want in the P.A.C.” said Dietz.
“I found it to be challenging when originally we were coming up with the physical space the P.A.C. was going to be located. It has been hard to have our ideas turned down and it is easy to get disappointed when they do, but we have found it to be important that when one idea gets turned down to keep thinking of another great idea.” said Seaman.
A couple of things had to happen in the P.A.C. room to create it into the space it is now. Seaman and Dietz, with the help of the Athletic Directors at HHS, had to first clear the whole room out since it was being used for a lot of storage. Second they repainted the whole room to a gray color. Then to finalize the athletic lounge with the help of some Varsity Club members, Seaman and Dietz have slowly furnished and decorated the P.A.C.. Future things to come to the P.A.C. are hopefully LED lights lining the room, a paw print rug for the bean bag side of the room, a P.A.C sticker mural for the wall, and more.
The Variety Club did a fundraiser in October to raise money for the P.A.C. and they raised more than they were hoping to, which provides a lot of opportunity for the group to decide how to best use it for the P.A.C.. Seaman and Dietz are hoping this student athletes lounge has a great impact on the students at Heritage High School.
“I believe the P.A.C. will benefit student athletes in many ways for example being a place to do homework, hangout with their teammates, and also a place where they can hang out and feel welcomed as a student athlete at Heritage High School.” said Dietz..
