A new mascot for the fair

There is a fresh face at the fair in Cookshire this year in the form of “Mookshire,” the Holstein cow mascot. Created as a way to help promote the event in years to come, particularly to younger audiences, the cow has already been seen around town a few times.

“The fair organizers want to create a sense of belonging at the fair, as much for children as for adults,” said fair promoter Audrey Perron-breault. “We really wanted to turn to the vision the children have about their fair, because they are the ones who will come, year after year, to the fair.”

Perron-breault explained that Mookshire is quite a local product. Although the costume itself was created at a specialized mascot workshop in Montreal, the idea for what the costume will look like as well as the character’s name were both crowd-sourced from the local community.

When it comes to the design of the mascot, the organizers turned to High school students from the area who attend both the Polyvalente Louis-saint-laurent in East Angus and Alexander Galt Regional High School.

“We gave them a drawing sheet and said, represent us,” she said.

Secondary five student Alyson Andrews from

East Angus submitted the winning design.

“Her vision of the fair was of a giant cow wearing suspenders,” Perron-breault said.

Once the design was approved and the costume was made, then the time came to put the question out into the world about what the cow should be named. On this front there were only a few criteria: it had to be original, and it had to be bilingual.

Joel Barter and his daughter Lily-raeven came up with the winning name together.

“I’m happy our name got chosen and was bilingual enough,” he said.

Look out for Mookshire on the site this year.