I saw this interesting tidbit over at Fort Mill Times. Apparently a contest was held in which local high school students were encouraged to draw their interpretations of the new elementary school mascots (Pleasant Knoll Panthers and Sugar Creek Sharks). They were given two weeks to come up with logos for each school. A committee made up of teachers and administrators from both new schools were then brought together for judging.

Here’s what I thought was interesting:

Taylor Elliott and Jimmy Carpenter, both from Fort Mill High School, had their designs selected. Both received a $50 Target gift card.

A $50 gift card? Seriously? THAT was their prize for drawing an image that will become synonymous with those schools in the years – no, DECADES – to come? $50? Jeez, that seems like a cheap payoff to me. I would have thought something like a Wii would have been a better prize for these kids. This economy really IS bad.

You can see the winning entries here:
* Pleasant Knoll Panthers
* Sugar Creek Sharks

Pleasant Knoll Elementary School, which opens in the fall, has announced it’s winning mascot/color combination. While our daughter had hoped the result would be the Pleasant Knoll Penguins, the new school’s mascot will be the Pleasant Knoll Panthers, with black and blue as the school colors.

The Panther option received 34% of the vote (Penguin tied with Knights for second place, with 22% of the votes each).

Sugar Creek Elementary School, on the other hand, had a tighter race, with the winning result of Sharks (and 30% of the vote). Sugar Creek Hawks came in second with 21% of the vote. Sugar Creek’s school colors will be blue and white.

And is it just me, or do our local schools have a LOT of BLUE in their school colors? Only TWO schools in our area have school colors that don’t include some form of blue in their school colors (Orchard Park Elementary and Nations Ford High). What’s up with the fascination for BLUE? I mean it’s a nice color, but c’mon…

Photo by khya.

This week will be a busy one for the new Pleasant Knoll and Sugar Creek elementary schools which hope to open their doors this fall. All entries to help decide the school mascots and team colors are due in tomorrow (Monday, February 9, 2009) at the current school of all prospective PKES and SCES students.

On Wednesday, February 11, the ballots listing the top 5 choices for mascot and team colors will go home with all students slated to attend those new schools. The completed ballots are due back on Friday, February 13.

Once in, the results will be announced the following Wednesday, February 18 on the websites for each school. As for our house, we’ve been debating on what we’d like to see for Pleasant Knoll and have determined that the Pleasant Knoll Tigers has a nice ring to it, with school colors of black and gold.

What about you? Do you have future PKES and SCES students in your house? If so, what do YOUR kids hope to have as future school mascots and colors?