Celebrity Mascot Games volunteering for a day

For the first time in the past two years, I’ve been attending the Celebrity Mascot Games. This year, I decided to volunteer for the event. I applied online to be a Mascot Escort and within a few weeks, I received an email stating that I had been selected to do the job! On Friday, July 30th, I parked in the Amway Center garage, I was very excited and a bit nervous. I go up to the ramp and go through the “Staff Members Only” entrance. It was cool to experience that.

I met the nice check-in team and proceeded to check in with my job. I was then handed a sheet asking which mascot I would like. I was hoping that they would give me the choice, and of course I selected Ozzie from UNF! After a few minutes, we were taken to a nice small room where we could have food and drink before we got ready for training. Once that was complete, we were instructed to go to the elevator. We were shown where to put our mascots, it was pretty easy to remember. Once we were shown the location, we returned for a few minutes and got to look around.

Then came the fun part; picking up our mascots and directing them to their table. As I walked down, I could clearly see Ozzie ready to go. I walked down and met him for the first time with a big hug! I was handed his trading cards and we went up the elevator and he took his seat. He started signing his cards and I left my post for a moment to get some pictures with Fin. When I got back to my post, tons of kids came out and Ozzie gave away his cards. I was shocked at how many children there were. Ozzie only got up once, but I remembered being told not to allow the mascot to get up, so I kindly asked him to sit down. Unfortunately, he was not too happy after that. Once the mascots time was complete, Ozzie came with me and I took him to the elevator. We had to fit 20 mascots and around 29 helpers into ONE elevator, let me just say that we all wanted to get out as quickly as possible.

Ozzie pointed for some water so I grabbed him a bottle, after all, he earned it. I walked him to the locker room, said goodbye and wished him luck. I returned to the helper room, got some water for myself and got in position to where the mascots would enter. After a few minutes, the mascots came out and Fin saw me taking pictures. He came up for a close up, maybe too close, he almost ate my camera! I then saw Stephanie Leavins (Pre-Game entertainment). I was excited to see her and meet her. As many of you know, she is a wonderful singer and if you’ve ever heard her, I’m sure she gave you chills. I got to talk to her and then she had to go say hello to everyone else. Ozzie came up to me and asked for a little help. I gave him a little pep talk saying, “You know the Blue Team is going to win today!” and wished him luck.

The Mascot Games officially started after Gina sang the National Anthem and all the mascots went to the floor once they were called. I enjoyed walking around a bit and meeting up with Stephanie Leavins again. I met her wonderful mother and got invited as her guest. I basically got to stay on the floor! It was amazing to be able to experience this for the first time. I thanked her so much for letting me join her. After the games were over, Blue team won, and I was happy. I’m pretty sure my pep talk to Ozzie worked! That ended my special day, I said goodbye to Stephanie Leavins and proudly left the Amway Center.

Special note to Ozzie–You were a lot of fun to work for and I’m hoping next year I will be able to do the same if you attend. And to Stephanie again, it was great to meet you and finally great work of the Central Florida Sports Commission. Till next year, thanks for checking out Mascot Madness’ coverage of The Celebrity Mascot Games!

I will look forward to next year!