SHS students honored for achievements
Sandpoint Elks Lodge No. 1376 has announced students of the month ffor the Lake Pend Oreille School District.
To be selected as an Elks student of the month, students must meet guidelines for character, citizenship, service, scholarship and leadership.
The Elks actively seek to reward youth through many different programs including scholarship awards, Hoop Shoot tournaments, dictionary donations to third graders, drug awareness programs and many other activities and programs.
Sandpoint Elks Lodge award thousands of dollars in scholarships and local students also received an additional money in state and national Elk scholarships. The Elks are the third largest awarder of scholarships in the county and several students have received large scholarships from the state and national level of Elks.
Those honored include:
• Kendall Mitton
A senior at Sandpoint High School, Kendall Mitton is the daughter of Amy and Eric Mitton.
Mitton has been an honor roll student all four years of high school. Her GPA is a 4.42 and she is ranked 10th out of the 227 students in her class. She has participated in cheer, football, softball, Student Council (senior class vice president), National Honors Society, and Model United Nations.
• Sam Puckett
A senior at Sandpoint High School, Sam Puckett is the son of Tom Puckett and Kim Puckett.
Sam Puckett has played football all four years of high school. Through those four years, he has earned achieved Offensive MVP honors his sophomore year on the JV squad. After injuring his back in lacrosse, Puckett had to sit out and film the next year for football.
“This year I ended the season getting the Tucker Taylor Award with Jackson Prior, who is one of my best friends, which was a great way to end the season,” he said.
Puckett also played lacrosse for four years and has been the captain for all four of those years. In his spare time, he loves being on the lake, whether it is to go wake-surfing, fishing, or just hanging out with friends. In the winter, he loves to go up to the skill hill with friends.
He has an unweighted grade point average of 3.667, a weighted GPA of 3.882, and is ranked 49th in his class.
• Sage M. Saccomanno
A senior at Sandpoint High School, Sage M. Saccomanno is the daughter of Clay and Kari Saccomanno.
Saccomanno throws herself into everything she does. She was the class president her freshman and sophomore years along with being photo and copy editor for the Monticola. She was selected to be a part of a curated team of student leaders trained throughout the year for Count Me In Global Student Leadership summit held in Toronto annually, the world largest, youth-led event of its kind, as a catalyst leader and peer-to-peer mentor. Sacco-manno has volunteered her time to this event for the past four years.
As Miss Teen and Miss Junior, Sage represented the community and Bonner County Fairgrounds and Rodeo throughout the Northwest. At 15, she competed at the state level, against all 19 year olds, for Miss Teen Rodeo Idaho winning the speech category. For her entire junior year, she lived in Todi, Italy, on a Rotary Club Youth Exchange, while also experiencing much of Europe including the front row at an Ed Sheeran concert in Latvia.
Upon her return to the U.S., she dedicated herself to school — half at Sandpoint High School and half online at North Idaho College.
She has a 4.604 weighted GPA and is ranked first in her class, but unable to vie for valedictorian or salutatorian due to her year in Italy. In addition, Saccomanno is vice-president for the Travel Club and earned a spot on the varsity tennis team, but never got to actually compete due to COVID-19.
Her hobbies include kayaking, paddle boarding, back-country skiing, and horseback riding. Saccomanno will be attending Bard College in Annandale-on-the-Hudson, New York with the hopes of becoming an environmental lawyer working internationally.
