Sixth and seventh graders walked in memory of Mrs. Joy Pancoast.

During the Middle School Bridge Week, the sixth and seventh graders walked for Mrs. Joy Pancoast, former Austin Hall receptionist and beloved member of the Malvern community who passed away this past summer.

Sixth Grade Dean Mr. Jamie Wasson said that when the teachers were creating Bridge Week, they thought that teaching the students about Mrs. Pancoast was a great idea.

“As we were meeting as teachers, planning Bridge Week, we thought it would be really neat to introduce the students to what we’d been doing all year, and kind of let them know, and we thought the best way to do that would be to actually do a Walk for Joy during Bridge Week,” Wasson said.

Several students felt that walking in memory of Mrs. Pancoast was very special.

“I thought that the Walk for Joy was a very good opportunity for all of us to walk for Mrs. Pancoast, who is a very special person here at Malvern Prep,” seventh grader Travis Camp said. “When we walked for Joy, I really thought that was a beautiful way to honor her. It gave me a lot of time to reflect on my time here, as well as think about what Mrs. Pancoast did for all of us.”

“The Walk for Joy was a really great experience for the sixth and seventh graders to remember someone very important to the Malvern community,” seventh grader Noah Buscaglia said.

Students who did not know Mrs. Pancoast personally felt that it was a great thing to do for such a special member of the school community.

“Not knowing the person we were doing it for, I thought it was very nice in her memory for doing it. I thought it was a very nice way to show our gratitude for all she did for Malvern,” sixth grader Jacob Leinhauser said.

Wasson felt that the Walk for Joy was an important experience for the students to have.

“You never know if every student gets something out of every activity you do, but to see and to hear some of the students speak afterwards indicated to me that whatever message that we had about Joy/Mrs. Pancoast definitely rang true with the boys that participated,” Wasson said.

For Camp and Buscaglia, the Walk for Joy made them remember Mrs. Pancoast.

“I remember when I first came to Malvern, she was a very influential person for me, because she was the first person to say, ‘Hi,’ to me on this campus, and it actually helped me with my first day here,” Camp said.

“Mrs. Pancoast was someone who would do something for anyone if they asked her,” Buscaglia said. “Now we are walking for her to remember her and do something for her.”