A Mount Isa school has a new friendly face running around the playground, as Healy State School inducts a superhero mascot.
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Hurricane Hank the Healy Hero was the brain child of Parents and Citizens president Megan Crowther, who discovered the need for a familiar face to set Healy aside from other schools.
Healy State School slowly introduced the mascot to the cohort by teasing hints in the school newsletter. The school took puzzle pieces of the mascot logo and added a different section in the newsletter each week.
Once the design was released, students were asked to enter a competition to guess his name. A combination of students entered ‘Hurricane Hank’ and ‘The Healy Hero’, in which the school joined them to officially call him ‘Hurricane Hank the Healy Hero’.
School principal, David Hardy, said given their team name was the Hurricanes it was difficult to replicate that into a three dimensional mascot, so they chose the superhero concept instead.
“Hurricane Hank has since been tied in with our early engagement process for children who haven’t gone to school yet,” Mr Hardy said.
“We wanted to put a symbol on our school so when we take him to events in the community, children would have a connection with our school already which could make the transition to prep a bit easier and potentially boost enrollments.”
Mr Hardy said after seeing student’s reactions to other local mascots its was an opportunity not to be missed.
“When we saw children’s reactions to the Buffs Club Bull and rodeo mascots Chainsaw and Blondie, and kids would get crazy excited,” he said.
“This is the same concept added into our school. Whatever we are are doing at school be it discos, sporting carnivals or in the community, we will take him with us to maintain that presence.”
Hurricane Hank the Healy Hero was funded through the school P&C with an additional grant from Mount Isa Airport.