Olds now has an official mascot.
Oliver Olds, a little grey owl so named because he is "all over Olds," was officially declared the town's mascot during council's Aug. 26 meeting.
Director of community services Doug Wagstaff told council that Oliver Olds first came into being as an unofficial town mascot in 2018, the brainchild of community facilitator Heather Dixon, whom he described as "a very creative lady."
"Oliver Olds has really caught on across the community. It's been very popular, both internally with our staff, externally with our community, as well as externally beyond our community," Wagstaff said.
"I do really seriously want to thank Heather for her ingenuity and creativity in bringing Oliver to life."
Wagstaff said in the past, Olds firefighters have carried "stuffies" to reassure children and adults who have experienced upsetting or traumatic incidents. He said they're now carrying Oliver Olds for that purpose.
"Not a better use for him," Mayor Mike Muzychka said.
Coun. Mary Jane Harper asked if town officials now plan to trademark and copyright Oliver Olds. Wagstaff confirmed that's the plan.
Coun. Wanda Blatz has experienced the popularity of Oliver Olds first-hand.
"I just want to say that my granddaughter is one of the lucky recipients of an Oliver Olds and he came to the Calgary Zoo with us yesterday and was quite a smash," she said.
"Several people made comments. That actually wanted to know where they could purchase one, so unfortunately I said they had to drive to Olds."
"Well, that's not unfortunate a bit," Muzychka replied.
Coun. Heather Ryan said she too had found Oliver Olds to be a hit."I've heard quite a few people around town saying that they love it and they think it's such a cute mascot and certainly a lot better than maybe something else that would start with an O, like maybe an octopus or something," she said.
"Or an ostrich," Muzychka added.
"Or an ocelot, something like that that wouldn't really work for the Town of Olds," Ryan added with a laugh.
A motion to make Oliver Olds the town's official mascot passed easily.
