Article: Redhawks Selected As New Mascot For Union Public Schools
Redhawks Selected As New Mascot For Union Public Schools
Posted Date: 11/09/2021
The votes are in . . . and the Union Redhawks, it is! Overwhelmingly, students voted in favor of redhawks as the choice for the district’s new mascot, with 80.7 percent of students in grades 6-12 voting decisively for the red-winged predator versus 19.3 percent for the bison mascot. When fourth and fifth grade student votes were included, the redhawks received 72.5 percent of the vote, and the bison 27.5 percent.
Union’s Board of Education on Monday voted unanimously to approve the new redhawks mascot, as recommended by students.
“We are thrilled that the votes came in so resoundingly in favor of the redhawks,” said Superintendent Dr. Kirt Hartzler. “Part of the fun has been figuring out where we were going to land on a mascot, as we had more than 320 people make suggestions. Early on, there was a group of students who had put Redhawks forth as a possibility, and we began to see consensus building early for this name when we started looking at attributes. I believe Redhawks strongly positions Union for the future and is a mascot we can live with for many years to come. Thanks to the thousands of students and patrons who provided input as we went through what I believe was a thoughtful process.”
Two frontrunners had emerged during the nomination process, with both redhawks and bison being suggested by a number of people. The Mascot Advisory Committee narrowed the choices down to these two finalists after an extensive public search for mascots that had attributes that most closely aligned with Union’s values. Voting took place among students in grades 4-12 from October 7 – 22, in schools throughout the district. (See the official voting results below).
“Next comes the really fun part as we begin the design process for the new mascot,” said Union Chief Communications Officer Chris Payne. “We have an artist who is taking all of the feedback that has been collected about the desirable mascot attributes and he will create several different iterations. Once we are satisfied with the choices, we will go back out to the students and they will cast the deciding vote on their favorite design, which will become Union’s new symbol. We want to make sure this new mascot is one that everyone will embrace as we take things in a new direction.”
One year ago, on November 9, 2020, the Union Board of Education voted unanimously to discontinue the use of the district’s previous mascot that had been in place for more than 75 years.
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