It is time for The AEGEEan’s Choice Awards again! From the 10th of March until the 31st you can let us know who your favourites are in categories like Best Video, Most Active Working Group, Most Impressive Roll Call and Most Original Mascot. For this last category, The AEGEEan has found five nominees, namely: Orestios Mesemvrios (AEGEE-Kastoria), Gorm Jr. (AEGEE-København), Morcillote (AEGEE-Burgos), Zvezdun Grigor’evich (AEGEE-Moskva) and the AEGEE-Aachen bear. In this article we will tell you all you need to know about these mascots and why they should win according to their home locals.
Orestios Mesemvrios (AEGEE-Kastoria)
A
EGEEan: What was your (and your mascot’s) reaction when you heard you were nominated?
AEGEE-Kastoria: We are very happy and proud for our little beaver, Orestios. We are so excited because of the nomination and the fact that The AEGEEan team nominated him made us grateful for our choice.
Orestios: I’m very proud to represent this gorgeous antenna, and your nomination made me very happy for the fact that AEGEE-Kastoria found me that summer evening in Nesebar. They love me and now, with this nomination, I see that more people love me and I’m sure that my cuteness will encourage you to vote for me.
AEGEEan: When and why was this mascot picked to represent your local?
AEGEE-Kastoria: Our host city is named Kastoria. The most common explanation of the name is “The city of beavers”, so we thought that a beaver would be our perfect mascot. From the moment we were founded, May 2012, we thought that we should have a beaver for our mascot. We searched in a lot of different cities of Greece, but we couldn’t find Orestios there. Then in the summer of 2013 one of our members travelled to Nesebar, Bulgaria, and found him at a souvenir store.
Orestios: Also I have to mention that my name comes from the local tradition. Orestiada is the name of the big, wonderful lake of Kastoria, so they named me Orestios after the lake and Mesemvrios because the city Nesebar, Bulgaria, is the ancient Greek city Mesemvrios.
AEGEEan: In which ways does this mascot represent your local?
AEGEE-Kastoria: Except for the fact that he’s directly connected with our city, he’s always with us in our events, local Agorae, board meetings and social meeting. He’s very lovely too, just like our antenna. He has everything that our antenna has: he is cute, wonderful, active and lovely wherever he goes.
AEGEEan: Why should your mascot win the Most Original Mascot award?
AEGEE-Kastoria: Because he is a beaver in the city of beavers! If he doesn’t win, who else could?
Orestios: I have to win, because I live in Kastoria and I am a beaver. You have to vote for me, because I am cute and AEGEE-Kastoria is great!
You can find Orestios Mesemvrios on Facebook here.
Gorm Jr. (AEGEE-København)
AEGEEan: What was your (and your mascot’s) reaction when you heard you were nominated?
AEGEE-København: Really pleased to see Gorm from our small antenna nominated for The AEGEEans Choice Awards. We are busy working on the upcoming Network Meeting København, so in the middle of many tasks and a huge pile of things on the to-do-list it was great to receive this news, it put a huge smile on our faces. And, of course, Gorm was very happy too.
AEGEEan: When and why was this mascot picked to represent your local?
AEGEE-København: Gorm Jr. actually has his birthday around the same time of the Network Meeting København. On the 17th of March he will turn four years old, as he was bought back in 2010 during one of the weekly meetings in the student house by the president, back then Eszter Virag and Madli Pindmaa. The goal was to have something typically Danish to represent our antenna and Gorm looks very Danish in his cute uniform. Gorm is also a very traditional Danish name for a king, and he also has some Viking looks. Once he was bought he lived with Eszter for a few months and when she left the city he moved into the apartment of Nino Burini, who was the next president of AEGEE-København, and later on Patricia Anthony (former President of AEGEE-København) had him in her apartment with Vice-President Mathilde Nielsen. He started travelling already as a baby and he was captured for the first time in April, during the “Mamma Mia… Here we go to Scandinavia” event in 2010.
AEGEEan: In which ways does this mascot represent your local?
AEGEE-København: He has the colours of Denmark and he is cute as many other mascots are as well. He wears a traditional king’s guard outfit and is also very royal himself with the name Gorm. In Copenhagen you can see a lot of castles and experience Denmark in many ways, so I suppose that what really shines through in him is the values of Copenhagen and our antenna.
AEGEEan: Why should your mascot win the Most Original Mascot award?
AEGEE-København: Gorm should win this amazing award, since he is the Great Original Right Mascot for this award. His name almost spells out the category and he is indeed original as a lots of thought has been put into him. He has travelled a lot, but still not enough, so it would be great for him to have a fantastic memory from Agora Patra to celebrate in Copenhagen, just in time for another triumph: the Eurovision Song Contest being celebrated in the Danish capital, just a few days after the big statutory event in Greece.
You can find Gorm Jr. on Facebook here.
Morcillote (AEGEE-Burgos)
AEGEEan: What was your (and your mascot’s) reaction when you heard you were nominated?
AEGEE-Burgos: OINK… OINK… Haha, just kidding! He was crazy and started running and jumping around! So, he suited up and he went partying to celebrate together. It was an unforgettable night. Just being nominated was worth it! He is delighted about all this, and he only wants one thing: TO WIN!
AEGEEan: When and why was this mascot picked to represent your local?
AEGEE-Burgos: It’s a really funny story.. Just after creating AEGEE-Burgos we were looking for a mascot who could be the ambassador of our antenna. One day we were walking around the city when we saw a pig trying to escape from some crazy people. REALLY! They were trying to capture Morcillote to eat him. Can you believe it?! So, we helped him to hide and we were able to save him. Morcillote was so grateful that he decided to stay with us forever (except when AEGEE-Zaragoza, Madrid, León, Barcelona and Santander stole him. That was how he started to travel all around Europe and meet other mascots).
AEGEEan: In which ways does this mascot represent your local?
AEGEE-Burgos: The pig is the example of our city’s gourmet culture. I’m sure many of you know jamón, chorizo, lomo, and of course Burgos morcilla. Deliciousssss, so there can’t be any better Burgos ambassador in AEGEE world than the wonderful Morcillote!
AEGEEan: Why should your mascot win the Most Original Mascot award?
AEGEE-Burgos: Do we really have to answer this question? We have a thousand reasons why Morcillote should be the most original mascot. Just take a look at the pictures! Morcillote represents the AEGEE Spirit. Every year we celebrate his birthday like he is a big rockstar and people from all over AEGEE attend. Morcillote, only you know how to organize a great party! Besides, everyone who has pressed his soft little belly and listened to his sweet OINK, OINK won’t have any doubt as to why Morcillote is the most original mascot. Morcillote, we love you!
You can find Morcillote on Facebook here.
Zvezdun Grigor’evich (AEGEE-Moskva)
AEGEEan: What was your (and your mascot’s) reaction when you heard you were nominated?
AEGEE-Moskva: Proud of our boy! He seemed like he was in shock, but he is acting too good.
AEGEEan: When and why was this mascot picked to represent your local?
AEGEE-Moskva: For a long time AEGEE-Moskva had no mascot. In 2013 we were discussing possible PR-actions to promote our antenna on Agora’s, Network Meetings (NWM) and the EBM. The story of his appearance is interesting, because it wasn’t simply from store shelf to AEGEE-antenna. In March 2013 I (Ksenia Lupanova) bought my first AEGEE-Moskva t-shirt. This t-shirt saw both Agoras in 2012, a great Summer University in Greece and went to Baikal Lake with the Transsiberian Dream vol. 4. It survived a lot of flights, European Nights, paintings, AEGEE-Moskva’s crazy 21th birthday party and the NWM in Mosvka. Unfortunately this t-shirt was broken by the sloppy owner, but it definitely had absorbed AEGEE spirit and the energy of great memories and events, so I suggested to make a handmade mascot from this t-shirt, because there can’t be any better material, so I sewed him. It was April 1st 2013 and we sent him directly to Agora Rhein-Neckar, where we had a lot of fights about the name so finally we decided that it would appear naturally after the Agora. And then we got it: Zvezdun Grigor’evich. It’s quite hard to explain the process of the name-appearing, because it came from Russian language and slang. Zvezdun stands for the short name of Starguy in Russian and his second name, Grigor’evich, is the name of my godfather and one of the founding members of AEGEE-Moskva: Grigoriy Frolov.
AEGEEan: In which ways does this mascot represent your local?
AEGEE-Moskva: Well, Zvezdun is very representative of AEGEE-Moskva’s identity and image. As you can see in our promotional materials, he appears almost everywhere! His star shape reminds us of Moscow’s Kremlin stars and the star in the AEGEE-logo. Red has been the colour of AEGEE-Moskva since it’s founding in 1991. In our new t-shirt he is hiding inside the star of the letter A, and in the Transsiberian Dream logo he starred in an unexpected devil role. He was also starred in AEGEE-Mosvka’s flashmob, shooting in our 2014 calendar and was with us in a lot of events already. Unfortunately he was stolen during Agora Zaragoza by superfast AEGEE-León, but he succesfully came back to us during New Years’s Event Noviy God po-russki.
AEGEEan: Why should your mascot win the Most Original Mascot award?
AEGEE-Moskva: Because he already got a lot of fans, is well-known in the Network and represents the spirit of AEGEE-Moskva: a bit wild, creative and full of AEGEE-spirit. He is a real gentleman and, as all Russians, never gives up!
You can find Zvezdun Grigor’evich on Facebook here.
AEGEE-Aachen bear
AEGEEan: What was your (and your mascot’s) reaction when you heard you were nominated?
AEGEE-Aachen: AEGEE-Aachen bear was like: “Oh my god, am I nominated for this awesome award?! I didn’t even know it existed, but I absolutely want to win it!” And so were we.
AEGEEan: When and why was this mascot picked to represent your local?
Legends say that when we organized the Agora Aachen in 2008 we needed a mascot. For some reason it became a brown bear, but as everybody wanted to dress up like the bear, we needed more costumes. And well, the polar bears were just cheaper ;).
AEGEEan: In which ways does this mascot represent your local?
AEGEE-Aachen: We are strong, unique, independent and everybody loves us. Totally like polar bears.
AEGEEan: Why should your mascot win the Most Original Mascot award?
AEGEE-Aachen: In Agora Rhein-Neckar we didn’t take enough care of our lovely bears, so they got stolen. The condition to get it back was to wake up the people at Agora Zaragoza one morning. Usually all the people hate waking up and the people who wake them up, but in this case all the participants woke up because of five polar bears going around, hugging and petting them one by one. When we win, the bear says we will do it again!
You can find AEGEE-Aachen bear on Facebook here.
Written by Svenja van der Tol, AEGEE-Nijmegen