LYNNWOOD — At the 2015 Super Bowl, he busted moves with Katy Perry.
In Lynnwood, he’s the guy at the pool with the big teeth and a baggy blue jumpsuit.
His name here is Clark the Shark, but you can call him Clark.
He’s the mascot at the city’s Recreation Center. The costumed character not only frolics by the pool with swimmers, he also teaches water safety and demonstrates CPR.
This shark holds his own. He doesn’t need Katy Perry to make a splash.
A select few rec employees take turns putting on the zippered blue suit.
“We look for a certain body type that fits,” said Bill Haugen, the aquatics manager. “I’ve tried it on and I look like a pregnant shark. It doesn’t fit mine.”
Clark the Shark shares the name with a children’s book character. His presence at the Lynnwood rec center started as a simple shark illustration for brochures and to show height rules for going down the pool’s water slide.
An in-house contest for city employees and their families was held in 2013 to create a bio for Clark. The winner was Marielle Harrington’s daughter, Sarah, then 9, who wrote the story about Clark the Shark’s humble beginnings.
Clark was bound for more glory than stickerhood.
Two years ago, a staff member suggested the center get a costumed mascot to mingle with the crowds and knew just the one: a Katy Perry shark, readily available online.
Forty bucks later, the shark who would become Clark arrived in a box in the mail.
“Best investment I ever made,” Haugen said.
They didn’t want him to be “Jaws.”
“We tested him out on the pool deck,” Haugen said. “We weren’t sure if Clark was going to scare kids or be a playmate.”
Sure enough, the kids screamed when they saw him — but they ran to him, not away.
Clark the Shark makes the rounds at events.
“At the water safety fair, he demonstrates how to put on life jackets, how to sit safely in a boat and how to do first aid/CPR,” Haugen said. “He breaks the ice with the kids and makes everything more fun for them to try.”
What happens next when you ask to try on the Clark the Shark costume…@lynnwood pic.twitter.com/4wlotEiSiF— Andrea Brown (@reporterbrown) August 14, 2018
A “Where’s Clark?” social media campaign is in the works.
“We’ll take photos of Clark and have the public try to guess where he is,” Haugen said.
Clark will make a photo-opp appearance at Lynnwood’s Fair on 44th, a free health and safety block party set for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sept. 8.
Haugen doesn’t want to over-saturate Clark’s star power. Too much Clark, he said, and “people would be like, ‘Oh, it’s Clark again.’ ”
In the rec center office, Clark can be found on a metal hanger, waiting for his next adventure.
This is actually Clark II. The original Clark costume perished from wear and tear.
A third Clark is in a plastic container under Haugen’s desk. It’s the backup if the other Clark needs to take a spin in the washing machine.
What’s it like getting inside Clark’s skin?
“You can dance around and be silly and no one knows it’s you,” said Andrea Robertson, aquatics safety officer. “I felt like a sign spinner.”
Andrea Brown: abrown@heraldnet.com; 425-339-3443. Twitter @reporterbrown.
The story of Clark the Shark, by Sarah Harrington, then age 9:
Clark is a very friendly salmon shark but all the creatures in Puget Sound are scared of him because he feeds on fish. After all, he does get hungry.
Sarah Harrington is seen here at age 9, when she wrote the winning bio of Clark the Shark for the Lynnwood Recreation Center. (Submitted photo)
So, he wanted to have people to talk to. One day, he was swimming near Meadowdale Beach when he spotted a strange, dark blob. When he swam up to it he discovered it was a hole. Curious, Clark swam into the hole. He swam a long time when finally he saw light ahead. All of a sudden, Clark came bursting out of the hole landing in a giant blue tube.
Clark rode the slide and splash landed into the Recreation Center pool. When he emerged from the slide, Clark was surrounded by all sorts of friendly people who welcomed him to the pool saying, “Hey, we have been looking for a mascot. We’d love you to be a volunteer!”
Clark agreed and became the Lynnwood Recreation Center’s official mascot. Clark loves it here!
Harrington wrote this for the Lynnwood Recreation Center in 2013. She is now an incoming freshman at Everett High School.
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