The London 2012 Olympic mascot Wenlock and Parlaympic mascot Mandeville took time out of their busy schedule today (19 May) to celebrate their first birthday. The mascots enjoyed a special birthday party at John Lewis Oxford Street attended London 2012 table tennis hopeful Hannah Hicks and children from Kilburn Park Foundation School, who are part of the Get Set network – the official London 2012 education programme.
The dynamic duo have had a busy year on their journeys across the UK, meeting young people and inspiring them to choose sport as they head towards the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.
The mascots have attended more than 200 events across the UK in the past year, many at schools in the London 2012 education programme ‘Get Set’, taking part in schools sports days and special Olympic and Paralympic related assemblies. Wenlock and Mandeville have also been popular features at London 2012 sponsor events such as Lloyds TSB National Sport Week, the BT Paralympic World Cup and through Deloitte’s school programme. They also recently celebrated the Royal Wedding by dressing up as a Beefeater and Queen's Guard in a special mascot hunt around London.
Wenlock and Mandeville are also proving an online hit. The first two mascot animated films, based on a story by children’s author Michael Morpurgo with music recorded by the National Youth Orchestra, have been viewed over 1 million times on the mascot website www.london2012.com/mascots and www.youtube.com/london2012. Over 20,000 people follow the mascots via Facebook and Twitter and fans of Wenlock and Mandeville are also engaging with digital versions of the mascots with new innovative and interactive computer games. A mascot customiser that allows you to create your own versions of Wenlock and Mandeville with different clothes and sports equipment has proved particularly popular and nearly 10,000 versions have been customised for the online gallery since launched in March.
The colourful characters are also popular on the high street, helping to contribute to the £80m to be raised from merchandise and licensing to fund the staging of the Games. Wenlock and Mandeville are available as soft toys, stationary, clothing, key rings, pin badges, posters, collectable figurines, decorative ornaments, bags, mugs, towels, bedding from the online shop at London2012.com, the London 2012 Shops at St Pancras International, Paddington Station, Heathrow Terminal 5 and official retailers including John Lewis, Next and Sainsbury’s. More mascot products will be released between now and Games time, when there could be up to 10,000 London 2012 products available.
‘Our mascots were designed for kids and we’re delighted that they love Wenlock and Mandeville and are interacting with them in so many ways,’ said London 2012 Chair Sebastian Coe. ‘The London 2012 mascots are on a journey across the UK inspiring young people to choose sport, and engage with the Olympic and Paralympic Games in a fun and exciting way’.
Wenlock and Mandeville have also been giving a helping hand to teachers and pupils in schools across the UK featuring on a range of new resources available to schools through the London 2012 education programme. Assembly packs and activity sheets have been made available to the 18,000 schools which are registered with Get Set to help support teaching and learning across the curriculum, with a particular focus on literacy and the Olympic and Paralympic Values in primary schools. Many teachers have used them as the basis of projects and activities which demonstrate a commitment to the Values to earn the school an allocation of tickets to the Olympic and Paralympic Games through the London 2012 Ticketshare scheme. The launch of the mascots in May last year saw the Get Set website recorded a new traffic record and more than 50,000 teachers and students have viewed the Get Set website pages featuring the mascots since they launched. More than 2,500 schools from every nation and region in the UK entered a recent art and design competition, Make Your Mascot, which will see the Wenlock and Mandeville visit the sports days of winning schools throughout this summer.
For more information, contact: www.london2012.com.
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