(10-year-old Kaitlyn Muir, Sport Minister Coralee Oakes and MLA Shirley Bond join Nanguz on Sunday)

Prince George, B.C. – Nanguz, the mascot of the 2015 Canada Winter Games in Prince George, made his first public appearance on Sunday.

And the multi-talented fox had a captive audience as he took the stage in front of some wide-eyed and excited youngsters at the YMCA’s Healthy Kids Day at Masich Place Stadium.  They were there to complete the Y’s Healthy Kids Marathon, a full 41km marathon which they tackle in small segments over the month of May.  The Y hosts Healthy Kids Day at its facility to encourage to develop healthy habits by taking part in fun activities.

 Nanguz was created and designed by 10-year-old Hart Highlands Elementary student Kaitlyn Muir, who also wrote the story about the fox which became the winning submission in the mascot contest.

The chair of the 2015 Canada Winter Games Host Society, Anthony Everett, explained the significance of Nanguz making his very first public appearance before a young audience.  “When we talk about the Canada Winter Games in 2015 we always talk about it being a youth event, so what better to exemplify youth than the actual mascot.  And in Canada Games history there’s been lots of great mascots but I really feel like we have one of the top mascots because its so, well, first of all it was created by a young lady that’s from Prince George and secondly to that, it’s an animal that people can identify with that’s from our area.”

“I got involved (in the games) because I wanted kids to get healthier and to see this feat from today is really important to me personally and I think that being involved with the “Y” is an incredible opportunity to keep getting kids healthy, and right now I’m standing here and I’m looking at Nanguz surrounded by kids, and that’s really cool.  So if Nanguz can help those kids stay healthy and active their whole lives then we’ve had some effect.”

So what else will Nanguz be doing in the lead-up to the games?  Everett says “Nanguz will be at lots of school events, community events and will travel across northern BC.  I don’t know the full extent of their programming because they’re going to so many communities, but the Williams Lake Stampede, Riverboat Days in Terrace, the stampede up in Dawson Creek.  So Nanguz will be able to be a real symbol.  Other than us just telling people about a great event people will gravitate towards Nanguz to learn about the event.  And then within the community here there are countless events that Nanguz will be at, and that will be the goal we have, Nanguz is part of the staff now and will be hitting the road.”

Everett says Nanguz T-shirts will be going on sale in the next week or so at Canadian Tire, with all proceeds going toward the games.  As far as other merchandising goes, he says “I think there’s going to be a new set of items coming in for the fall.  So what’s happened with the sales items, its, well first of all Canadian Tire giving us that space for no charge means all the money goes into the games and is used for activities like this and for sports.  And it’s just now starting to turn a profit for us, a small profit, so that’s good and new items, we had a bit of a supplier challenge at the beginning and we have a new supplier, so in the fall there will be new materials for sale.”

Sunday’s Nanguz debut also included an announcement from Minister of Sport Coralee Oakes that the provincial government is contributing an additional $150,000 to showcase the talents of aboriginal and other B.C. artists during the cultural events running during the 2015 Games.