"Ready to be a Mascot?" "Uhh, What?"

http://www.zimbabweparaguay.org/index.html

TAYLOR’S VIEW: I need to start off this saying; this is NOT what I signed up for. Erica and I went to this “fair” thinking we’d help run a booth or assist people who needed help. We drove about an hour to find this place and got lost a lot. Once we get there and they made us go over to the changing area where people are putting on mascot costumes. None of us knew what we had to do or what we got our self’s into. The people that were in charge were extremely demanding right off the bat. They made us all get into costumes except Brandon who recorded us the whole time. After we were all dressed they sent us out to the starting line. At first they had us cheering to get the little runners pumped up. Once they were ready one of the workers said that we were the ones that were supposed to run ahead of the kids to show them were to go. My initial reaction was horrible. I had to run in a silly costume in front of all these people. They started the race and instantly I knew it was all over for me. We turned the first corner and all the kids passed me. I was the only mascot passed up. Erica and I decided that this running thing was not for us. We stayed at the finish line to just help cheer on the runners coming in and we took pictures with the younger kids. After the races were complete they sent us over to take pictures with the kids and hand out the trophies to them. After all the running and cheering we decided to put my boyfriend in one of the costumes to do his community service. We had a fun time helping take pictures of the kids with the elephant mascot giving the trophies out. The experience was definitely not what we expected but we did it for a good cause. The runners each had to pay five dollars to help out the orphans in Zimbabwe. They had a shoe donation so I also donated a pair of shoes that they said would help children that need them. It was a weird/exciting experience and I’m glad we completed our two hour run for orphans.

ERICAS VIEW: When I first signed up for this I was excited for having something to do on this project and not just getting an F. I knew I needed someone to come with me so that I could have a recorder and someone to help me get there. I stink at directions so me without a GPS, and a Piece of paper from MapQuest won’t help. Therefore I brought Taylor, my partner in crime. First when we got there, we were at the wrong school. We were at St. James High school which apparently is this really rich private high school. We were confused when we got there and no one was there. I knew it wasn't canceled because Ellen (the Director) said that there would still be a race even if it was raining. So something didn't seem right. So after awhile we realized that the school down the road also had a "St." in the beginning of the school name and that is what confused us. When we arrived my name wasn’t on the list of volunteer people. I looked puzzled and told him "Ellen said I could work here." Then they went off and fetched Ellen, and we were in. Ellen guided us directly to the back where the "costumes were." Immediately I wanted to do a different job. But since we were a little late from getting lost earlier I don’t think we had any other options. Taylor, Drake and I slipped on the costumes and went to run the race. Which we also didn't know we'd be running in. We sort of just booked it once we heard the man yell, "Go!" I felt like I was being chased by a bunch of little animals. It was slightly frightening. I was so tired after the first race and it was only 200 yards. I couldn’t breath because of the giraffe mask in front of my face, and I couldn’t see because the head which was twice as big as mine kept falling in front of my face Not to mention I had to hold it up while I was running. The head was probably about the same weight as my own head. (I'm suffering a little bit from a neck problem because of it) We thought we were done running but then we found out we were supposed to run five more races. I looked at Taylor and she looked at me and we both knew we couldn’t do it. We tried to run as much as we could, but the kids got faster and the race got longer. After awhile we just cheered on the little munchkins as we sat on the side out of breath. The best part of this experience was seeing all the little kids eyes light up like stars when they saw you. I took probably about 10 pictures with different kids. They were so cute! After a few races Taylor and I headed back to take off the mascot suit. We walked around and I actually interviewed a girl that was working in one of the booths but I forgot to put it in the movie. I also got footage of the Zimbabwe band that played. After all of that excitement Taylor and I decided to head home.