Club brings unique twist to cheer
SARAH Ignash spends her days looking after dogs.
With her grooming and day-care business temporarily closed because of the coronavirus, though, she’s taken to walks on the wild side through her Detroit, US, suburb with dancing bears, bipedal zebras and the like.
Ignash is one of the about 24 members of the Ferndale T-rex Walking Club who have been donning inflatable costumes for feel-good jaunts during these stressful times.
“It’s so much fun. Nobody can really see, (because) I have my mask on. And when I walk, I’m just smiling from ear to ear,” the 42-year-old Ignash said before donning her pink unicorn get-up and leading Monday’s impromptu parade.
It was the club’s seventh walk since it formed in March. The members’ full-body inflatable costumes run the gamut from dancing hippos, sharks and bears to a cheerful Pikachu, Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and Mr Potato Head. And, of course, there’s a T-rex.
They trek single-file along pavement to thematically appropriate tunes such as the Bangles’ Walk Like an Egyptian, and Walk the Dinosaur by Was (Not Was).
“The purpose of the group is to just do something a little bit out of the ordinary,” said Ignash.
Most members of the T-rex Walking Club also belong to the Elks lodge in Ferndale, and they adhere to a strict set of guidelines.
Their costumes are fully enclosed and every member also wears a mask while inside. Plus, socially distancing is no problem for them.
“A lot of us are very large and we have very long tails,” Ignash said.
“So, maintaining social distancing is very easy in these.”
While the club members get a kick out of their parades, the idea is to bring a little bit of cheer to their fellow residents who remain under quarantine.
“That’s just really why we’re doing it. It’s just something that’s very unexpected. And people need something a little bit different to break up the day, I think,” Ignash said. | AP