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Brudis, the last of the 200 trout taken care of by Mr. Slama's Environmental Science class.

Trout gang started when Mr. Slama informed our environmental science class that we were getting trout eggs to care for before we released them as adults. We, Kat Yenne and Grace Olson, decided to start an Instagram page to keep the student body updated on the progress of the trout while also using it for comedic purposes.

At first, our content was mostly trout memes and updates. We started interviewing students and teachers about their opinions and feelings on the trout and posting them to our Instagram page. Unfortunately, our trout contracted a disease that wiped out all but one of the original 200 trout. We named our final survivor Brudis, the last trout standing.

Then we started conducting more interviews around our school, asking everyone how they felt about the loss of the trout and posting their responses on our Instagram page. We began to gain a steady following so we decided that instead of just producing trout content, we would use our page to bring the Manitou High School community together. We have been doing this by producing weekly Q&A videos and comical content to help promote unity between students from all different grades and friend groups, as well as introducing different teachers and staff.

We had been doing this for a few weeks before our school was shut down due to COVID-19. Both of us decided to brainstorm a way to cheer up the students during this strange, lonely and unexpected time. What better way to achieve this than to make a video of everyone encouraging each other. We are hoping to keep our community positive and connected by producing more content during quarantine and eventually when we return to school. Our end goal for Trout Gang is to spread the love of our Manitou family and make sure students feel like they are appreciated and involved.