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The panther has found a home.

For Jasslyn Dahlberg, watching the panther get loaded into a trailer on its way to Tracy, Minn., was about finding the right home for her welding capstone project rather than saying goodbye.

“I’m happy it’s going to a good home,” Dahlberg noted. “It was my first ever metal project, and I will probably make another one for myself.”

In October, the panther was put up for auction, with proceeds supporting the Welding program. This had always been Dahlberg’s plan; when she decided to create it, she didn’t have the cash to purchase the metal needed, so she made the deal with instructor Chuck Haus.  

While work on the panther began and progressed, Tracy Area High School had already been looking for a panther for many years.

“The superintendent [Chad Anderson] always wanted to make the high school look appealing, and he’s done a really good job of improving the look of the school,” said Tom Hook, who drove to ˮ���� to pick the panther with family members. “What was missing was the panther. When this came up, he was ecstatic.”

Hook is a graduate of the high school before it consolidated and is a former school board member. When Tracy and Balaton consolidated 2009, a new mascot was chosen – the Panthers.

“Anderson’s had an alert for years, every time a panther is for sale. So he found this and said, this is it. We have to bid,” added Hook.

Bidding was tense the last moments, and they actually went over their agreed max bid by $500, but everyone was quite all right with it. They finally had the missing piece of their panther journey.

Plus it wasn’t just getting the perfect panther that prompted them to bid: “Knowing that it was Jasslyn’s project and the care she put into it, and also knowing that she wants to go into welding and marketing, I think it makes it even more special. It’s not just something that was commercially done – it was done by a student,” Hook explained.

The panther will greet everyone as they come in the north entrance of Tracy Area High School. Hook hopes that it will show high school students the possibilities that can come with trades careers and how you be creative at the same time.

Before the panther was loaded into the trailer for its three-hour ride to Tracy, the folks gathered at the panther’s departure just stood back and admired Dahlberg’s finished project. “It’s beautiful. It really is. It will look so great.”