The Mascot

The word mascot has been traced back to colloquial use in Provence and Gascony in France, where it was used to describe anything – animal, person, or object – which inspires and brings good luck. Even a garden!

September 11 is not only a day of remembrance, it has also become known as a "Day of Service", commemorated this year in Raleigh's News & Observer's front-page article: "Doing some good while doing time". It reported how inmates at Johnston Correctional Institution in Smithfield NC work the soil as their part in the "Plant a Row for the Hungry" program. They are learning gardening techniques and using them to raise food for charity. By eating what they produce, you may literally be taking – to quote McGruff the Crime Dog – "a bite out of crime!"

One prisoner said, "It’s like when you’re here, you’re not in prison. It’s like you’re on a little farm, for a couple of hours a day. It gives me something to do, keeps me out of trouble. And at the end of the day, I feel like I’ve done something to help somebody.” The garden has become his inspiration – his mascot.

Around that same time, Fox News reported a similar story from the other side of the world – Japan. The Asahikawa prison, located some 560 miles north of Tokyo has just become the first Japanese prison with a life-size mascot!

"Katakkuri-chan" is a 6-foot 6-inch humanoid with a huge square face and an enormous purple flower for hair. The mascot wears the uniform of a prison warden, (A female version has the same name). Katakkuri-chan made its recent debut at an annual weekend fair at the prison. On Sunday it played with 1,700 children and visitors (up from 1,200 last year) who were able to buy handicrafts made by inmates, ranging from barbecue parts to TV stands and aprons. Katakkuri-chan is spearheading the jail's efforts to warm up their chill and forbidding image.

Tokyo Metropolitan Police has had its own crime-fighting mascot since the 1980s. Pipo-kun is well-loved across the nation and appears on posters and in crime prevention videos as well as on cell phone cases, notepads, erasers, mouse pads, T-shirts and key chains. A combination of several animals, he takes the best parts in order to be the best law-enforcement officer: his large ears help him hear people in trouble, an antennae to catch quick movement and large eyes to watch every corner of society. He even has a stirring song on his website.

Now that's thinking "outside the box". Maybe these are ideas other prisons can try!

Can you think of a way to do your own Day of Service? Here are three ways to think out of the box:

• Draw a picture. Drawing a picture is more right-brained, and can help break your logical left-brain’s hold on a problem.
• Work backwards. Start with a goal and think back through the steps needed to reach it until you get to where you want to be.
• Ask a child for advice. Ask a child how they might tackle a problem in a way they can understand it. A child thinks and speaks with an ignorance of convention that is often helpful.

Think of it – You may solve world peace. You may come up with a new mode of transportation. You may discover a cure for cancer.

You may even come up with a cure for autism.

Now that, my friends, would be a truly extraordinary day of service. And you would be one humdinger of a mascot!

Author Patrick Simpson and his wheelchair-restricted wife Anne uncover their experiences exploring historical and cultural experiences around the world. Visit now to learn how independent travel for disabled persons is not only possible, it can be fun!! www.booksbypatricksimpson.com