(KCNC) – A Colorado high school crowned two therapy dogs, Polenta and Norene, as its first-ever canine homecoming king and queen.<\/p>\n
Evergreen High School created a \u201cpuppy homecoming court\u201d for the dogs, who ran uncontested and won.<\/p>\n
Dogs support students and staff<\/p>\n
Amy Wells, lead counselor at Evergreen High School, said the dogs\u2019 job is simple.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir duty is to lie there and just be pet and hang out,\u201d Wells said.<\/p>\n
The dogs arrive at school early and stay until after the last bell. Wells said she stands at the front of the building every morning with the principal and lets students greet the dogs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI stand in the front of the building every single morning with my principal, and we let the kids come up and pet them or just talk to them,\u201d Wells said.<\/p>\n
Jackson Thomas, an Evergreen High School senior, said seeing the dogs affects his mood.<\/p>\n
\u201cI light up whenever I see them,\u201d Thomas said.<\/p>\n
Support since the shooting<\/p>\n
Evergreen was the site of a school shooting one year ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just felt very vulnerable, you know,\u201d Thomas said.<\/p>\n
Wells said research shows cortisol levels can calm with a dog present.<\/p>\n
\u201cResearch says that cortisol levels will calm down a little bit with a dog,\u201d Wells said.<\/p>\n
The dogs can be found in the counselor\u2019s office, walking the hallways or offering support during tests.<\/p>\n
Quinn McEvers, an Evergreen High School senior, said students can interact with the dogs without having to talk about what they\u2019re going through.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t need to talk about what\u2019s going on in your life or how something is affecting you. You can just get the love from the dogs, and it really helps,\u201d McEvers said.<\/p>\n
Crowned under the Friday night lights<\/p>\n
Thomas said the dogs have made an impact on the school.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey brought so much joy to this school,\u201d Thomas said.<\/p>\n
Polenta and Norene were announced as homecoming king and queen during the homecoming football game.<\/p>\n
McEvers said the dogs are more than pets to the school community.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey make a difference in our community, and I think that it\u2019s really great that they\u2019re getting honored for that because they are a lot bigger than just dogs. They\u2019re really a part of our community,\u201d McEvers said.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 KCNC via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(KCNC) – A Colorado high school crowned two therapy dogs, Polenta and Norene, as its first-ever canine homecoming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[136188,136190,136187,9,24,63,136191,122,124,123,136189],"class_list":["post-369720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-canine-homecoming-king-and-queen","tag-evergreen-high-school-shooting-anniversary","tag-evergreen-high-school-therapy-dogs","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-puppy-homecoming-court","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-school-therapy-dogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}