ALOHA, Ore. — The Trailblazers have a mascot named Blaze, the Hillsboro Hops have a mascot named Barley. And now Butternut Creek Elementary School has a mascot named Beatrice.
The school mascot is a bulldog, and officially a bulldog named Baxter. Now Beatrice is also raising school spirit.
Beatrice came about in an unusual way, according to Principal Dani Johnson.
Johnson says she shared a little known fact with her staff during a “get to know you” exercise at a meeting. It was in response to the question, “What would you want to do if you were not doing what you do now?”
“And my tidbit was if I couldn’t be a principal, I would love to be an NBA (or) MLB mascot,” said Johnson.
Staff members heard that, and on Johnson’s birthday presented her with a gift. The gift was the Beatrice Bulldog Mascot costume.
“I was just so overjoyed because that’s such a kind gift from my staff and it just means a lot that they were listening, and it was fun,” said Johnson.
Johnson has been greeting children as Beatrice on special days ever since. Her motivation is this:
“I love this job so much and I’m just here for the kids. They just make my world, I smile and laugh every single day of my job and so being able to give them some happiness and smiles is just awesome."
And the payoff from hugs and high fives is important connections made with young students.
“A lot of that work begins with building relationships, and what better way to do that than have a little fun, like being a mascot and making the environment a place that the kids want to be here, said Johnson. “And they feel safe, they feel happy, and that way we can start engaging them in the academics and personalize their learning.”
And as you can see from our video, the kids really enjoy Beatrice the Bulldog.