Home crowds of more than 2,000 fans routinely pack Middlebury College’s Kenyon Arena to watch the two-time defending Division III champion men’s ice hockey squad in action. On any one of those nights, it is a good bet that sprinkled among the spectators are several youngsters who are more than just average Panthers hockey fans. They are friends.

More specifically, they are Panther Pals, the name given to a mentoring program that pairs members of the ice hockey team with elementary school children.

About a dozen Middlebury student-athletes travel to nearby Ripton Elementary School each week, where they spend an hour with a group of boys. Panther Pals matches one student-athlete with one student, but features a high level of interaction between the older and the younger while emphasizing teamwork, team building and communication. Activities vary from meeting to meeting, but according to junior Darwin Hunt, who coordinates the outreach, the agenda usually involves some kind of game, such as kick ball, dodge ball or tag.

Besides Hunt, ice hockey student-athletes Scott Bartlett, Tom Maldonado, Jed MacDonald, Sam Driver, Mickey Gilchrist, Justin Gaines, Evgeny Saidachev, Rob MacIntyre, Ian Drummond and Jocko DeCarolis also serve as mentors.

Hunt said that in choosing participants for the program, Ripton school officials selected boys they felt would benefit most from having an older male figure in their lives. The wide smiles and happy giggles ringing out during each week’s gathering are sure signs that a special bond is being forged. However, the benefits aren’t one-sided.

One of the most important things Hunt said he gets out of his involvement with Panther Pals is the relationship he has formed with his mentee.

“By the second or third week he started coming to a lot of our hockey games. He’s told me about things that are going on in his own life and it gives me a feeling of responsibility,” said Hunt. “It makes me feel good.”

Maldonado, a second-year member of the squad who is no stranger to working with kids — he’s been doing so at hockey day camps for the past three summers — said he enjoys his visits with the boys at Ripton and believes he and his teammates fill critical roles for the young students.

 “It’s really important for little kids to have someone older to look up to. In my case, I have a mentee who doesn’t have an older brother or sister. This gives him an opportunity to look up to someone,” said Maldonado.

Although the Panther Pals program is in only its first year, Middlebury student-athletes aren’t rookies in community service. In fact, service is expected from ice hockey student-athletes, thanks to the emphasis veteran head coach Bill Beaney places on the importance of giving back. While Panther Pals currently is the exclusive domain of the men’s ice hockey squad, other Middlebury teams interact with the Foundation for Excellent Schools, through which student-athletes participate in a variety of service activities, including many that revolve around mentoring young students either individually or in groups.

According to Beaney, one of the goals of such an extensive outreach is to encourage kids — regardless of their age or level in school — to aim as high as possible in life, and he is pleased with the results that Panther Pals has produced so far.

“For me, it’s great to see the relationship between the student-athletes we’ve had at Ripton and what they’ve been able to share with the students, whether it be spending an afternoon together working on a science project, e-mailing back and forth or just being a friend and giving a little more self-assurance to a youngster who might be having difficulty at home or at school,” said Beaney. “The return on this side is simply about our players being able to reach out to those who are in need. It gives a lot more meaning and appreciation for playing hockey at Middlebury College.”

Hunt hopes to interest other Middlebury teams to begin similar mentoring efforts at other local elementary schools.

“The beauty of this program is that it takes at most an hour or two out of the whole week,” said Hunt. “It is so meaningful for the people we do this for, but it takes so little time.”