Kimball PD's Giga-Bite named mascot of the month

Project Fun's Giga-Bite has been named Street Characters' Mascot of the month for February.

When Police Chief Darren Huff envisioned Project Fun, he wanted the kids to have an example to look up to, someone who could embody the "perfect citizen." Huff thought it would be a good idea to use a police dog as an example for the children.

After doing some research, Huff decided to model the mascot after a police dog. Most would expect a police dog to be a German Shepherd, however, another breed was used as a model for the project fun mascot. The Belgian Malinois (pronounced MAL-in-wah), was used as a military dog during World War I. More recently the breed is used as police dogs, military dogs, drug detection dogs, and search and rescue dogs. The Belgian Malinois tends to have a body which is fawn in color and a black face and ears. They are a diligent breed known for being quick learners and need to be kept busy.

With a mascot design in mind, Huff set out to find a company that would be up to the task of creating a mascot suit.

"The problem we ran into was that when a company or entity creates a mascot, they own the rights to the character. So if we wanted to make coloring books or anything with the character's likeness we wouldn't be able to because the costume makers would have those rights," Huff said.

Thankfully, Huff got into contact with Street Characters. The company had designed several characters for the NHL. They were very excited about the project with Chief Huff.

"We wanted to name it something fun and well, while we were throwing around name ideas, I thought that Giga-Bite sounded good but to spell it with the i, t, e instead of y, t, e," Huff said.

Giga-Bite was able to be present for Shop With a Cop back in December 2013. He can also start being the face of Project Fun.

"Project Fun is a way for us to help kids see what a model citizen would do. We don't rely heavily on 'don't do this,' and 'this will happen if.' We want this program to be proactive," Huff said.

Project Fun is supposed to give kids an example in Giga-Bite of what a model citizen would do in different situations. It's also supposed to focus on how people would choose to behave if they were being good citizens. So instead of telling kids to 'tattle' if they see someone doing something wrong, they are encouraged to act the way a model citizen would if they see someone not being a model citizen. In contrast with 'tattling' where an adult is notified of any kind of wrongdoing be it large or small scale, the system Project Fun teaches encourages kids to be their own problem solvers.

"We try to encourage the kids to learn what they should do. We want to use Giga-Bite as that model for them to imitate. Giga-Bite is honest and shows respect for other members of the community. So he wouldn't name call or cheat because that's not respectful or honest," Huff said.

This is unlike other programs that tend to tell children everything they shouldn't do. Project Fun is allowing children to put their own deductive reasoning and logic to use. They are given the opportunity to choose to imitate good and honest behavior.

"We want to get the kids to make the good decisions, because it's good, not because they fear a consequence," Huff said.

There are a lot of school programs out there that use scare tactics to get kids to shy away from potentially harmful activities. The D.A.R.E. program shows kids pictures of diseased lungs, meth addicts, and other things to shock kids and make them stay away from drugs and other harmful substances.

"I don't really care for the programs that scare kids. I prefer programs like Smokey the Bear. The program really uses Smokey to their advantage. He teaches people about what they can do to prevent bad things like forest fires from even starting in the first place. It was kind of eye opening as a kid learning you could stop something like a fire from starting," Huff said.

Another positive thing Huff plans on implementing for Project Fun is featuring a student monthly who exemplifies the behavior of a model citizen. It will be one student from the high school and one from the elementary school monthly. He hopes to be able to get local businesses involved in order to thank the students for their model behavior.

Although Project Fun is still getting it's footing, Huff is really excited about the program and the impact it could very well have on the school children.

Street Characters was aware of the direction Huff was planning on taking Giga-Bite in and were excited to be a part of a positive program. They named Giga-Bite their Mascot of the Month for February. This entails Giga-Bite being featured on the company's website. The website also has posted a few paragraphs explaining the vision for Giga-Bite and Project Fun.