- The Shafter Recreation and Parks District is searching for public input on a mascot. As of Monday, there were 34 votes in the poll with 26 of them in favor of having a mascot. Mascot examples include a squirrel, the tree from the District's logo, and the Shafter Saints.
Phillip Jimenez is the District's manager and has lived in Shafter for the near entirety of his life. Jimenez and 23ABC discussed why the District is interested in adding a mascot, and the Shafter-Wasco rivalry's influence on what he would not want to see as the mascot.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Have you ever wanted to name a sports team? What’s going on in Shafter, isn’t exactly quite that, but the Shafter Recreation and Park District is asking for public input on the potential of a mascot.
As of monday, 34 people have voted in the district’s survey and provided feedback on the initiative. District manager Phillip Jimenez says the district's board said the reasoning behind it is to try and stand out and give the community something to be excited about.
“How come we don’t have this at more sporting events? Such as when we have our opening day for baseball, for our pony league. Why don’t we have something in the sense of that? That got the board’s brain’s churning in the sense of them wanting to see what we can brand ourself," said Jimenez.
Looking closer at the responses from the community, there are plenty of good ideas, there’s bumble bees, the Shafter cadet's, a Shafter squirrel.
Look, I understand my illustrations aren't going to win any awards by any stretch of the imagination. Though, Shafter Recreation and Parks district doesn't quite know what they want to the mascot to be yet, Jimenez says they are well aware of what they don't want the mascot to be.
“Obviously, we don't want it to be a tiger. Obviously, there’s a local school eight mile's north of us on Highway 43 that holds a good rivalry against us. We want it to be in conjunction with us, something type of a general, a commander, a Trojan, or maybe an animal, but not a tiger.
If you would like to give your input on the Shafter Recreation and Park District mascot, you can find the survey on their social media pages.
Stay in Touch with Us Anytime, Anywhere:
