As a Columbus North High School cheerleader, senior Lydia Feltner said her job is to generate school spirit and get people on their feet at football games.
But with a decades-old Bull Dog mascot costume falling apart and a run-through tunnel that required the cheerleaders to hold it down as the football players sprinted out on to their home turf, Feltner said it was becoming more difficult to raise spirit.
For her senior project, a requirement for all Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. seniors before graduating, Feltner decided to raise money for a new Bull Dog mascot costume.
When she first started fundraising, she sat down with local business owner Tony London to determine a quote for a new costume and a large inflatable Bull Dog helmet tunnel that the team could run through at home games.
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“She immediately nixed the helmet,” said Lynley Roberts, Feltner’s mother. “It was going to be way too much and I said, ‘That’s too much on a child to raise that kind of money.’”
But after hosting a successful Red, White and Big Blue 5K race on July 4 with more than 60 participants and garnering donations and support from area businesses and community members with ties to the Columbus North football team, Feltner had raised more than $4,000 — more than enough to purchase both the $800 mascot costume and the inflatable helmet, which totaled $3,600.
“After I raised all that money, I had extra left over,” Feltner said. “I was in between ideas and I decided to go all out with this. It took a while to raise the money and now it’s here.”
The football team ran through the 5-meter-by-5-meter black and blue helmet tunnel for the first time Thursday after Feltner revealed it to the team before practice.
“They were super excited,” Feltner said. “I was super excited. Everybody was all in on it.”
Roberts said Feltner tried to keep the tunnel a secret from the football players, but as soon as it arrived Tuesday, it was too big of a secret to hide.
The new mascot costume made its debut at the Columbus North-Columbus East football game in August. Several people in the crowd noticed and commented on the new costume, saying it was about time the school had a new Bull Dog.
Feltner said she still has money left over after purchasing both the mascot and the tunnel, and she’s still brainstorming ideas for how to spend the rest of the money.
“It’s awesome to see her do this,” Roberts said. “She’s a very determined child. It doesn’t surprise me that she went from raising $1,400 for a mascot to raising almost $4,000 for this. Years from now, she’ll be able to come back and say, ‘I bought that.’”
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For more football coverage, see The Republic sports section on Page B1.
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