Daily Dose of Sultnpapper 06/29/18> Today marks the end for Shortie…the Sloth.

I hadn’t mentioned this week about things happening around the home front but it has been a busy week, actually a busy few weeks. This week has been the annual Vacation Bible School up at the church.

This is the last year that Shortie is able to attend as a “bible schooler” and that means one thing, she is growing up. I guess schooler isn’t a recognized word in some parts, but get used to it here, because not only do we have bible schoolers we have home schoolers as well.

This final year for her has been really special because while she is still a schooler she is also a volunteer too. I honestly don’t know if they have ever had that situation before and we have as a family been involved with VBS for the last 17 years and nothing rings a bell. If it has happened before it is extremely rare so I will ask Shortie to inquire about that with the lady who is in charge.

This year the theme for the VBS school was “Shipwrecked” I do know that, and also each day of the week also featured an animal that would be on an island where the ship ends up wrecked at.

It just so happens that one of the animals is a sloth and as luck would have it, Shortie just happened to have a sloth costume from Halloween last year and she mentioned it to the lady in charge of VBS about six weeks ago.

It didn’t take the lady long to call my wife and ask if Shortie would mind being a mascot for the VBS program this year. Aside from being a part time sloth Shortie is a little ham as well, so she jumped at the opportunity to be the “official mascot”, it not like they have any other ones, but she likes being known as “official” so I have to include that adjective or I might be in trouble with her.

So for the last four Sundays leading up to this week Shortie has been dressed in her costume and up at the church on Sunday morning making the rounds to all the Sunday children’s bible study classes and also working around the sign up table in the commons area of the church. This week she has been up on stage a couple different times and she will also be there today since it is the final day of VBS and today’s animal is the sloth.

I took some time right before I sat down to write this daily dose to interview the sloth, help try and jump start her career in being a mascot. It doesn’t hurt to get her some worldwide attention since she isn’t getting anything else for her efforts.

I asked the sloth what is the best part of being a sloth and she responded, “the best part is making the little kids smile, that and giving them “high fives” , ( hand slaps are high fives)”.

My next question was, has anyone tried to hurt you or have you scared anyone? “no one has tried to hurt me, but I have had a couple kids try to rip my head off” , and what about scaring?, “I don’t think I have really scared anyone, there are some shy kids that won’t come real close, but they are smiling while they are backing away.”

What advice would you give other folks who might want to be a mascot? “Make sure that you protect your head and that you can see out of the eye openings.” Any other advice? “If at all possible always try and have a wall at your back, that way you have protection from the backside sneak attacks, kids like to try and sneak up on you from the back.”

I had one final question for the sloth, is it hot inside that costume? “It is June, of course it is hot, but most of the time I am in the buildings where it is air-conditioned so it is comfortable for the most part.”

So there you have it, history has been made here in the Daily Dose, my first real life interview with a real life mascot sloth. I never thought that when she got that costume it would be used more than once, boy was I ever wrong. She did tell me that so far no one has figured out it is her, she just smiles and waves or high fives; she hasn’t spoken a word while in costume since her voice is very distinguishable.

Next year VBS just won’t be the same for the family, we won’t have any children enrolled. I have heard it mentioned that the kids would like the entire family to volunteer together to work the VBS program. Before that will happen, that youth minister is going to have to come up with Blodie’s paper from confirmation that we are still waiting to get back. I told the wife that after VBS is over I am going up to the church and have a little one on one conversation with him about that. I have held off because I didn’t want to ruin Shortie’s debut as a mascot by getting her fired from it for something I might say.

Hope you all have a great end to your week; I am sure the sloth named Shortie will.

Until next time,
@sultnpapper

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