Friendly Panda competes in mascot race, is friendly

A friendly panda is a fine thing.

This was confirmed on a recent Sunday when the WWF Panda got out amongst the people. For all the important conservation work WWF is doing behind the scenes in southwest Australia, sometimes it’s just as important to get out into the community. And so on this Sunday Panda, with a trusty pair of panda handlers, attended the City of Mandurah’s Crabfest to compete in the festival’s annual mascot race.

In the clear sun of a recent Sunday Panda exuded goodwill, gathering its strength from some innate optimism that wanted to make this living planet just a bit livelier. It was a bright day, quite hot for large furry beasts to be gallivanting in the sun – and they were just the swarthy, bearded panda handlers. Panda itself was sweltering. Nevertheless, such considerations amount to little when there are people to delight.

And delight Panda did. Arriving early, it strutted around the festival spreading stickers, high fives and panda hugs to all, strewing a trail of delighted smiles in its wake. Children and adults alike mobbed Panda; some posing for photos but most just after a fuzzy embrace. At one point Panda inadvertently stumbled into a miniature dance party where it displayed without hesitation its hitherto unknown B-Bear skills, tearing up the dance floor to the rhythm of the beat and the crowd’s cheers.

After all this fun it was time for the race itself and so Panda made its way to the track to begin its stretching regimen: an intensive series of lunges, star jumps and frolicking. There is little more amusing in life than watching a panda performing sit-ups. Set, ready and raring to go, Panda proceeded to the muster point and gathered with the other mascots – a motley assortment of beasts, machines and, er … miscellaneous.

After a brief, somewhat chaotic time in which the race announcer introduced all competitors while the mascots themselves jostled for starting positions, the contenders were in place, the crowd began cheering their favourites and the starter raised the chequered flag. “And Go!’ They were off.

Did I say that Panda doing sit-ups was amusing? Indeed it is. But a phalanx of wild mascots careening through an obstacle course must rate as one of life’s greatest joys. The haphazard mascot menagerie raced each according to their various abilities, but almost all running blind. Dragon collided with crab, helicopter collided with dog, and an unidentifiable purple thingamabob ricocheted off an inflatable obstacle into the mascot pack. It was a mass frenzy of fur and felt with Panda somewhere in its midst. In the end it was a bipedal coffee cup that tore free from the horde, with Panda finishing somewhere in the middle of the pack. A valiant effort against some formidable opponents.

Of course the true victory is in the delight a single panda can bring and by that measure the day was a victory indeed, as confirmed at day’s end while a weary Panda trudged towards home. In the quiet car-park came a sudden cry of “PANDAAAA!” and a youngster with a WWF sticker worn proudly on her chest threw herself headlong into Panda’s arms, seeking one last hug.