COEUR d'ALENE - Every freshmen at Coeur d'Alene and Lake City high school has an upper-grade peer who has got his or her back.

Through each school's student-to-student mentoring program, the youngest kids on campus don't have to muddle through their first year of high school alone.

"Freshman year is so difficult because it's such a change from middle school," said Jillian Rowley, a prevention specialist at Lake City. "It can be challenging to build relationships on a site with about 1,500 students. We want them to feel safe and to have someone they can trust and talk with."

The program at Lake City was reinstated last year and is in its second year. Coeur d'Alene High School recently revamped its mentoring program named "Viking Crew."

Rowley said mentoring helps the new ninth-grade students feel welcomed, that they're part of the system, and it improves the overall school environment.

Right now, mentors at both schools are capitalizing on the holiday season's spirit of gratitude and giving as a way to forge deeper relationships with the younger students.

This month's mentoring program theme at Lake City is thankfulness. Freshmen and their older mentors are spending time together this week gathering cans of food for a local food bank, but first they're using the cans as a starting point for a discussion on the meaning of thankfulness. Together, they're using the canned soups, chili and vegetables to build "can-structures."

Casey Moore-Snider, an 11th-grade mentor at Lake City, said the can construction projects are an icebreaker, a way to get the kids engaged.

Breaking off into smaller groups, the mentors discussed the concept of thankfulness with the ninth-grade students. They asked the younger students what they're thankful for and how they've shown appreciation to parents, teachers and friends.

Moore-Snider said most of the students said they were grateful for something, but there were a few who surprised her.

"Some kids said they weren't thankful for anything. As a mentor, it becomes a challenge to help them see they do have things to be grateful for," Moore-Snider said.

She spoke with one such young girl.

"I found out she had a lot of bad things going on her life, so I tried to point out some things she might be thankful for - the fact that she's getting a good education, that she's alive, for that matter, that she has shoes, which some kids don't have," Moore-Snider said.

The mentors dug a little deeper during the discussion sessions and talked about the difference between thankfulness and entitlement.

"Having appreciation and just expecting something are different. With entitlement, you feel like you just deserve something," Moore-Snider said.

Students at Lake City have to apply to be mentors, which is a privilege, Moore-Snider said.

Josh Day, a Lake City freshmen, said he likes having an older student he can turn to.

"It helps you feel like there's always someone you can connect with," Day said.

Potential mentors at Lake City must be recommended by a teacher and submit a list of their extra-curricular activities along with an essay on why they want to do it.

"I remember freshman year, having so many questions. There was no mentor program then," Moore-Snider said. "I think it just makes it easier to create relationships."

Jonathan Madrid, the Associated Student Body President at Coeur d'Alene High School, said he's a mentor at that school for similar reasons.

"I remember being a freshman and not having a clue," Madrid said.

The CHS mentors are working with the freshmen this year to support Operation Christmas Child.

Madrid said the organization creates packages to send overseas to children in developing countries for Christmas. People are asked to fill shoe boxes with school supplies, hygienic supplies or toys to cheer a child up, he said.

"Part of the reason we're doing this is to connect with our freshmen on a deeper, personal level," Madrid said.

They make the effort to take their activities off campus at times, he said. This weekend, Madrid will be going to a local department store with his mentees, to collect items for their gift boxes.

"It's kind of a bonding experience," he said.